EBENEZER  ROCKWOOD  HOAR 


LIBRARY 

OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA. 

Class 


EBENEZER  ROCKWOOD  HOAR 

A  MEMOIR 


EBENEZER  ROCKWOOD  HOAR 
a  jttemofr 

BY 

MOORFIELD  STOREY 

AND 

EDWARD  W.  EMERSON 


"  The  Jedge,  who  covers  with  his  hat 
More  wit  an'  gumption  an'  shrewd  Yankee  sense 
Than  there  is  mosses  on  an  ole  stone  fence." 

J.  R.  LOWELL 


BOSTON    AND    NEW   YORK 

HOUGHTON  MIFFLIN  COMPANY 


1911 


COPYRIGHT,    1911,   BY  MOORFIELD  STOREY  AND  EDWARD  W.   EMERSON 
ALL  RIGHTS  RESERVED 

Published  October  iqn 


CONTENTS 

I.  BIRTH  AND  EDUCATION 1 

II.  LAW  AND  POLITICS 33 

III.  His  FIRST  SERVICE  ON  THE  BENCH  .       .       .       .79 

IV.  THE  ACTIVITIES  OF  MIDDLE  LIFE         .       .       .107 
V.  THE  ATTORNEY-GENERALSHIP        ....     162 

VI.  THE  PUBLIC-SPIRITED  CITIZEN 220 

VII.  PERSONAL  REMINISCENCES 274 

INDEX  .  .  337 


EBENEZER  ROCKWOOD  HOAR 

CHAPTER   I 

BIRTH   AND   EDUCATION 

IN  the  ancient  graveyard  at  Quincy  in  Massachu 
setts  lies  buried  Joanna  Hoar,  who,  as  appears  by 
a  tablet  over  her  grave,  came  to  New  England  in 
1640. 

The  cause  of  her  migration  is  thus  stated  in 
words  attributed  to  her  by  the  subject  of  this 
memoir  in  a  letter  announcing  a  gift  to  Radcliffe 
College :  —  "  I  was  a  contemporary  of  the  pious 
and  bountiful  Lady  Radcliffe  for  whom  your  col 
lege  is  named.  My  honored  husband,  Charles  Hoar, 
Sheriff  of  Gloucester  in  England,  by  his  death  in 
1638  left  me  a  widow  with  six  children.  We  were 
of  the  people  called  by  their  revilers  Puritans,  to 
whom  civil  liberty,  sound  learning  and  religion 
were  very  dear.  The  times  were  troublous  in  Eng 
land  and  the  hands  of  princes  and  prelates  were 
heavy  upon  God's  people.  My  thoughts  were 
turned  to  the  new  England,  where  precious  Mr. 
John  Harvard  had  just  lighted  that  little  candle 
which  has  since  thrown  its  beams  so  far,  where 
there  seemed  a  providential  refuge  for  those  who 


2    EBENEZER  ROCKWOOD  HOAR 

desired  a  church  without  a  bishop,  and  a  state 
without  a  king. 

"  I  did  not,  therefore,  like  the  worshipful  Lady 
Radcliffe,  send  a  contribution  in  money,  but  I 
came  hither  myself,  bringing  the  five  youngest  of 
my  children  with  me,  and  arrived  at  Braintree  in 
the  year  1640."  1 

The  two  daughters  of  Joanna  Hoar,  by  marriage 
with  Henry  Flint  and  Edmund  Quincy,  became  the 
sources  of  the  Adams  and  Quincy  families.  Her 
youngest  son,  Leonard  Hoar,  was  educated  at  Har 
vard  College,  where  he  graduated  in  1650,  and  of 
which  he  became  the  President  in  1672,  the  first 
who  was  a  graduate  of  the  college.  Thus  early 
was  the  relation  established  between  Harvard  Col 
lege  and  the  Hoar  family.  The  eldest  son  who 
accompanied  her  to  this  country,  John  Hoar,  when 
he  grew  up  settled  in  Concord,  which  was  then 
"the  extreme  western  frontier  town  of  English 
settlement  in  New  England."  Thenceforward  the 
family  dwelt  in  Concord,  Lincoln,  Lexington, 
Waltham  and  Watertown,  within  a  circle  of  six 
miles'  radius.  John  Hoar  was  a  lawyer  and  a 

1  It  is  said  that  in  the  archives  of  Gloucester  there  is  a  record 
of  the  grant  to  Charles  Hoare,  the  father  of  Joanna  Hoar's  hus 
band,  of  a  house  in  Longsmith  Street  for  999  years,  and  also  of 
five  pounds  for  going  with  his  horse  to  Cirencester  in  1588  to 
give  warning  of  the  Armada.  His  son,  Joanna's  husband,  was 
active  in  resisting  King  Charles,  and  was  with  other  aldermen  of 
Gloucester  imprisoned  by  Archbishop  Laud  for  making  a  grant 
from  the  city  to  John  Workman.  The  name  of  Hoar  still  exists 
in  the  southwestern  part  of  England. 


BIRTH   AND   EDUCATION  3 

citizen,  whose  thought,  speech,  and  action  were 
fearlessly  independent  of  others  in  a  day  when 
magistrates  and  ministers  were  formidable.  His 
humane  and  brave  conduct  in  sheltering  and  pro 
tecting  the  poor  group  of  "  Praying  Indians  "  of 
Nashobah,  when,  in  King  Philip's  War,  a  cruelty 
begotten  of  fear  took  momentary  possession  of 
Concord,  is  recorded  in  Walcott's  "  Concord  in  the 
Colonial  Period."  In  1676,  he  went  into  the  wil 
derness  and  redeemed  Mrs.  Rowlandson  from 
captivity,  a  very  dangerous  expedition.  His  in 
dependence  in  the  matter  of  church-going,  and 
his  remarks  on  the  preaching  of  Rev.  Edward 
Bulkeley,  proved  "  an  expensive  luxury  "  to  him, 
as  Mr.  Walcott  says,  for  he  was  fined  and  tempo 
rarily  disbarred ;  but  his  life  reflected  honor  on 
his  name. 

John  Hoar's  son  Daniel  was  a  lieutenant  and 
presumably  had  some  military  experience,  but 
Daniel's  son  John  "  was  a  soldier  in  the  old  French 
War  and  was  a  prisoner  among  the  Indians  for 
three  months,"1  serving  also  as  a  selectman  of  Lex 
ington.  From  him  came  Samuel  Hoar  of  Lincoln, 
who,  as  a  lieutenant  of  the  Lincoln  Company,  was 
at  Concord  Bridge  on  April  19,  1775,  where  also 
were  two  great-grandfathers  and  three  great- 
uncles  of  Judge  Hoar.  Lieutenant  Hoar  served  in 
the  Provincial  and  Continental  forces,  and  fought 
at  Saratoga.  Later  he  was  a  magistrate  and  sat  in 

1  Autobiography  of  Seventy  Years,  George  F.  Hoar,  vol.  i,  p.  20. 


4         EBENEZER  ROCKWOOD   HOAR 

the  Legislature  of  Massachusetts,  first,  as  a  repre 
sentative  from  Lincoln,  and  afterwards  as  sena 
tor.  He  married  Susannah  Pierce,  whose  father 
was  Colonel  Abijah  Pierce  of  Lincoln,  one  of  the 
town's  Committee  of  Safety  in  the  days  preceding 
the  outbreak  of  the  Revolution,  and  colonel  of  a 
regiment  of  Minute-men. 

Their  first-born  son  was  Samuel,  who  through  a 
long  life  sustained  and  advanced  the  simple  and 
brave  ideals  of  Massachusetts.  He  was  an  eminent 
lawyer,  a  public-spirited  citizen,  a  high-minded  and 
honorable  man.  He  was  a  Federalist,  then  a  Whig, 
and  when  the  slavery  question  became  pressing  he 
took  a  prominent  part  in  founding  the  Republican 
party.  He  represented  Concord  in  the  Convention 
which  sat  in  1820  to  revise  the  Constitution  of 
Massachusetts  ;  he  served  one  term  in  Congress ; 
and  at  the  age  of  seventy-two  was  chosen  to  the 
Legislature  of  Massachusetts,  where  he  rendered 
good  service  to  Harvard  College  by  a  speech  which 
defeated  an  attempt  to  abolish  the  Corporation  and 
substitute  a  board  to  be  chosen  by  the  Legislature. 

At  the  age  of  seventy  he  was  employed  by  the 
Governor  of  Massachusetts,  authorized  thereto 
by  the  Legislature,  to  test  the  constitutionality 
of  certain  laws  passed  in  South  Carolina,  under 
which  colored  sailors  on  ships  entering  the  har 
bors  of  that  state  were  imprisoned  while  their  ships 
were  in  port,  and  sold  to  pay  their  jail  fees,  if  they 
were  not  paid  otherwise  when  the  ship  went  off. 


BIRTH   AND   EDUCATION  5 

Mr.  Hoar  went  to  Charleston  for  this  purpose,  but 
was  compelled  by  force  to  leave  the  state  without 
accomplishing  his  object,  the  Legislature  of  South 
Carolina  having  passed  resolutions  directing  the 
Governor  to  expel  him,  and  the  actual  expulsion 
being  accomplished  by  a  committee  of  leading  citi 
zens.  This  treatment  of  Mr.  Hoar  was  one  of  the 
incidents  which  helped  to  create  the  bitter  feeling 
that  brought  on  the  Civil  War. 

Let  these  three  sayings  about  Squire  Hoar,  as 
he  was  familiarly  called,  find  place  in  the  memoir 
of  his  son,  if  only  to  show  heredity.  They  relate 
to  his  domestic,  his  public,  and  his  professional 
character.  Thomas  Starr  King  said  :  "  Mr.  Hoar 
lived  all  the  beatitudes  daily."  Alcott,  when  most 
disowning  responsibility  to  governments,  said : 
"If  they  will  nominate  Samuel  Hoar  for  Governor, 
I  do  not  know  but  I  will  recognize  the  State  so 
far  as  to  vote  for  him."  Mr.  Justice  Seth  Ames 
said  :  "  Among  my  earliest  recollections  of  the  ad 
ministration  of  justice  in  the  County  of  Middle 
sex  was  the  fact  that  Mr.  Hoar  appeared  to  be  in 
every  case,  so  that  apparently  the  only  obstacle 
to  his  having  a  complete  monopoly  of  the  business 
lay  in  the  impossibility  of  being  on  both  sides  at 


once." 


His  son  Rockwood  said  of  him  in  1879:  "I 
think  the  summing  up  of  Father's  relations  to 
mankind  is  that  he  was  to  a  remarkable  degree 
one  of  '  the  pillars  of  the  Commonwealth.' "  Nor 


6         EBENEZER  ROCKWOOD  HOAR 

is  this  word  of  Mr.  Emerson  out  of  place  as  con 
firming  this  judgment :  "  I  had  occasion  to  say  the 
other  day  to  Elizabeth  Hoar  that  I  liked  best  the 
strong  and  worthy  persons,  like  her  father,  who 
support  the  social  order  without  hesitation  or  mis 
giving." 

As  Rockwood  Hoar's  grandfather  on  the  spear 
side  fought  to  establish  the  States,  united  and 
free,  so,  on  the  spindle  side,  his  grandfather  was 
one  of  those  who  drew  up  and  fearlessly  signed 
the  Declaration  renouncing  allegiance  to  the 
mother  country  and  helped  to  frame  the  Consti 
tution  of  the  new  republic ;  for  Samuel  Hoar 
found  in  the  daughter  of  Roger  Sherman  his  help 
mate  through  a  long  life.  She  was  comely,  active 
in  mind  and  speech,  and  kind,  and  many  of  her 
son's  most  striking  characteristics  were  said  to 
have  come  from  her.  Roger  Sherman's  part  in  his 
country's  history  is  well  known,  and  he  stands  a 
sturdy  figure  among  our  leaders  in  the  early  days 
of  the  Republic,  honest,  wise,  uncompromising, 
universally  respected.1 

His  biography  cannot  be  written  here,  but  a 
few  words  of  John  Randolph  may  be  quoted  be- 

1  It  is  stated  that  through  his  mother  Judge  Hoar  was  de 
scended  from  George  Minot,  an  early  settler  of  Dorchester,  from 
John  Prescott,  the  founder  of  Lancaster,  and  from  Francis  Higgin- 
son,  and  through  the  last  from  a  sister  of  Archbishop  Grindal  and 
a  sister  of  Chaucer.  It  is  also  suggested  that,  on  his  father's  side, 
he  could  trace  his  descent  to  "Fair  Rosamond";  but  steps  in  these 
genealogical  ladders  are  generally  wanting  and  the  gaps  are  filled 
with  a  free  hand. 


BIRTH   AND   EDUCATION  7 

cause  they  throw  some  light  on  Judge  Hoar's 
inheritance.  Mr.  Albert  H.  Tracy  told  Mr.  Em 
erson  in  1857  that  while  he  was  in  the  House 
of  Representatives  John  Randolph  said  to  him : 
"  There  is  one  quality  which  is  very  rare,  common 
sense.  I  have  been,  boy  and  man,  acquainted  with 
this  body  twenty-four  years,  and  I  have  known 
one  man  who  had  it.  I  would  not  say  I  have  known 
but  one,  and  I  would  not  say  I  have  known  more 
than  one ;  but  I  have  seen  one  man  who  had  it  in 
a  remarkable  degree  ;  his  name  was  Roger  Sher 
man  and  he  made  this  remark  :  '  When  you  are  in 
the  majority,  vote  ;  when  you  are  in  the  minority, 
talk/  " 

It  would  have  been  strange  indeed  if  the  de 
scendants  of  such  ancestors  had  not,  like  Joanna 
Hoar,  prized  "civil  liberty,  sound  learning  and 
religion."  1 

The  children  of  Samuel  Hoar  were  :  Elizabeth, 
born  1814 ;  Ebenezer  Rockwood,  born  February 
21,  1816,  married  Caroline  Do wnes  Brooks  ;  Sarah 
Sherman,  born  1817,  married  Robert  B.  Storer  ; 
Samuel  Johnson,  born  1820,  died  in  infancy ;  Ed 
ward  Sherman,  born  1823,  married  Elizabeth 
Prichard ;  George  Frisbie,  born  1826,  married 
(1)  Louisa  Spurr,  (2)  Ruth  Miller. 

To  his  first  son,  Squire  Hoar  gave  the  name  of 

1  A  full  account  of  the  family  genealogy  is  found  in  Senator 
Hoar's  Autobiography,  from  which  the  facts  here  stated  are  in 
large  part  taken. 


8         EBENEZER  ROCKWOOD   HOAR 

his  close  friend  and  classmate,  Ebenezer  Rock- 
wood,  "  a  man  of  brightest  promise  and  one  of  the 
leaders  of  the  Suffolk  Bar  at  the  time  of  his  early 
death." 

To  account  for  the  early  influences  at  work  in 
that  Concord  home,  Senator  Hoar's  words  about 
the  family  should  be  quoted.  "  Our  ancestors  were 
Puritans  in  every  line  of  descent,  as  far  as  they 
are  known,  from  the  time  when  Puritanism  was 
first  known.  The  same  is  true  of  nearly  all  the 
collateral  kindred  of  the  Hoar  and  Sherman  fami 
lies  by  blood  or  marriage  in  every  generation." 

Squire  Hoar's  home  was  a  God-fearing  home, 
but  a  less  happy  picture  is  given  when  one  must 
add  that  it  was  a  Jehovah-fearing  home,  and  the 
"  jealous  God's  "  exactions,  especially  on  the  Sab 
bath,  were  severe  to  childhood.  He  was  a  Uni 
tarian,  but  of  the  sternest  type,  while  Madam 
Hoar  came  from  Connecticut  and  was  brought  up 
under  "Blue  Laws."  The  gaps  before,  between 
and  after  the  long  church  services  were  nearly 
filled  with  family  prayers,  Bible-readings,  or  learn 
ing  of  chapters.  Not  only  was  play,  but  even 
walking  out  of  doors  except  to  the  church,  dis 
pleasing  to  the  deity.  Senator  Hoar,  in  an  article 
in  the  "Youth's  Companion,"  tells  of  the  "long, 
dreary  and  more  than  Jewish  Sabbaths."  Some 
"  Sunday  books  "  were  allowed,  but  these  were  flat 
or  doleful.  " '  Pilgrim's  Progress,'  however,  with 
its  rude  prints,  was  a  great  resource."  In  this 


BIRTH   AND   EDUCATION  9 

connection  the  following  anecdote  told  by  Judge 
Hoar  of  his  brother  Edward,  and  by  Senator  Hoar 
of  the  Judge  himself,  may  well  find  a  place.  A 
"  brother  of  mine,  who  was  very  precocious,  was 
extremely  fond  of  it,  especially  of  the  picture  of 
the  fight  between  Christian  and  Apollyon,  where 
the  fiend,  with  his  head  covered  with  stiff,  sharp 
bristles, '  straddled  clear  across  the  road/  to  stop 
Christian  in  his  way.  Old  Dr.  Lyman  Beecher, 
who  had  his  stiff,  grey  hair  cropped  short,  made  a 
call  at  our  house  one  afternoon.  While  he  was 
waiting  for  my  mother  to  come  down,  the  little 
fellow  came  in  and  took  a  look  up  at  the  doctor, 
and  then  trotted  round  to  the  other  side  and  looked 
up  at  him  again.  He  said,  '  I  think,  sir,  you  look 
like  Apollyon/  "  Mr.  Hoar  adds  that  Dr.  Beecher 
thought  it  a  great  joke  that  he  should  "  be  com 
pared  to  a  personage  of  whom,  in  his  own  opinion, 
and  that  of  a  good  many  other  good  people,  he 
was  then  the  greatest  living  antagonist." 

To  all  persons  of  classic  studies  Squire  Hoar 
suggested  a  fine  old  Roman,  and  his  classmates  in 
college  used  to  call  him  Cato.  His  son  George  said 
of  him :  - 

"  He  held  a  few  simple  beliefs  with  undoubting 
faith.  He  submitted  himself  to  the  rule  of  life 
which  followed  from  these,  and  rigorously  exacted 
obedience  to  it  from  all  for  whom  he  was  respon 
sible." 

Mr.  Emerson,  seeing  the  Squire's  tall  figure 


10        EBENEZER  ROCKWOOD   HOAR 

striding  past  on  his  favorite  spring  walk  over  the 
sheltered  Lexington  Road,  wrote  in  his  journal : 
"  The  beauty  of  character  takes  long  time  to  dis 
cover.  Who  that  should  come  to  Concord  but 
would  laugh  if  you  told  him  that  Samuel  Hoar  was 
beautiful,  yet  I  thought,  one  day  when  he  passed, 
that  the  rainbow,  geometry  itself,  is  not  hand 
somer  than  that  walking  sincerity,  straitly  bounded 
as  it  is." 

A  granddaughter  recalls  the  scene  at  the  morn 
ing  prayers  in  Mr.  Hoar's  household ;  the  man 
and  the  maids  filing  soberly  into  the  dining-room 
after  breakfast,  taking  the  chairs  placed  for  them 
by  the  kitchen  door ;  Madam  Hoar  reading  a  chap 
ter  in  the  Bible,  then  all  kneeling  for  Mr.  Hoar's 
prayer.  There  was  no  familiarity  in  it,  or  vain 
repetition.  He  thought  that  the  being  whom  he 
addressed,  like  himself,  preferred  condensed  state 
ments  :  "  0  Thou  before  whom  angels  bow  and 
archangels  veil  their  faces,"  he  sometimes  began. 

Yet  though  repression  of  feeling  was  the  rule 
lest  the  love  due  to  the  Creator  be  spent  upon 
the  created,  and  lest  they  spoil  the  children  en 
trusted  to  their  care,  love  and  tenderness  were 
none  the  less  in  the  parents'  hearts.  The  Rev.  Mr. 
Frost,  Mr.  Hoar's  pastor  in  later  years,  saw  through 
him  as  a  grandfather,  and  happily  left  this  wit 
ness  :  "  No  one  saw  or  admired  more  the  sweet 
ness  of  a  child.  He  would  not  invade  the  right  of 
a  child  to  his  independent  thought  and  feeling. 


BIRTH  AND  EDUCATION  11 

He  was  peculiarly  tender  of  the  rights  of  children, 
as  well  as  all  classes  of  the  weak  and  defenceless." 
Rockwood,  happily,  did  not  suffer  by  repression. 
A  contemporary  record  of  his  early  childhood  has 
been  preserved,  and  is  quoted  here. 

HISTORY  OF   EBENEZER  R.   HOAR, 
Written  by  his  Sister, 

ELIZABETH  HOAR. 
Designed  for  the  use  of  young  persons. 

Ebenezer  Rockwood  Hoar  was  born  in  Concord 
February  21,  1816,  of  respectable  parents.  When 
he  was  three  years  old  he  could  read  the  Bible  as 
correctly  as  any  grown  person.  He  was  very  pas 
sionate  at  times  when  he  was  offended  or  disap 
pointed. 

At  the  age  of  about  two  years  he  was  sent  to 
school  to  a  very  pious  Instructress,  who  in  a  few 
weeks  taught  him  more  than  any  town  school 
master  would. 

At  four  he  excelled  his  older  sister  in  reading 
and  spelling  and  the  pauses.  He  had  a  great  af 
fection  for  his  Instructress,  and  as  she  was  poor, 
when  he  had  any  money  given  him  to  spend,  it 
was  his  delight  to  carry  it  to  her. 

Sometimes  he  indulged  selfishness,  and  was  un 
willing  to  carry  anything  to  her.  I  will  mention  an 
instance  of  this  kind.  One  day  they  had  a  cherry 


12        EBENEZER  ROCKWOOD   HOAR 

pie  brought  upon  the  table.  He  had  now  nearly 
finished  his  dinner,  and  there  was  a  small  piece  left 
upon  the  plate.  His  mother  asked  him  which  he 
had  rather  do,  carry  it  to  his  Instructress  or  eat 
it  himself  ?  He  replied,  "  I  had  rather  eat  it  my 
self";  but  he  was  afterward  very  sorry  that  he 
had  eaten  it,  and  the  next  time  he  had  his  choice 
he  requested  to  carry  it  to  his  Instructress.  She 
was  sensible  to  all  these  proofs  of  affection,  and 
she  often  kissed  and  praised  him. 

His  Instructress  was  accustomed  to  have  a  small 
party  the  Saturday  after  Thanksgiving  every  year. 
She  invited  all  her  scholars,  and  among  the  rest 
my  brother.  He  had  a  young  companion  named 
Gardiner  Davis ;  he  got  into  a  little  quarrel  with 
him  and  bit  him  most  severely. 

But  I  hope  as  he  increases  in  years  he  will  do 
better,  but  I  have  lately  experienced  that,  as  he 
grew  older,  he  grew  worse. 

Fortunately  he  was  granted  time  to  justify  his 
sister's  hope  rather  than  her  fear. 

Senator  Hoar  candidly  records  how  "  Dr.  Bart- 
lett,  one  of  the  worthiest  and  kindest  of  men,  but 
who  always  uttered  what  was  in  his  heart,"  said, 
that  "  Samuel  Hoar's  boys  used  to  be  the  three 
biggest  rascals  in  Concord,  but  they  all  seem  to 
have  turned  out  pretty  well." 

Perhaps  the  neighbors  looked  for  a  prematurely 
decorous  walk  and  conversation  in  the  sons  of 


BIRTH  AND  EDUCATION  13 

Samuel  Hoar.  The  simple  fact  was  that  here  were 
three  highly  vitalized  boys,  enterprising  and  of 
fertile  minds,  who  when  school  was  out,  their  fa 
ther  attending  court,  their  mother  occupied  with 
her  household  cares,  roamed  free  and  rejoicing  in 
the  Paradise  of  Concord,  not  unlike  Adam  tried 
more  than  one  variety  of  apple,  and  probably  were 
driven  from  more  gardens  than  he.  Their  sins, 
however,  were  venial. 

Through  life  Rockwood  had  an  astonishing  quick 
ness  in  witty  repartee.  His  sister  Sarah  (Mrs. 
Storer)  gave  this  earliest  recorded  instance  of  it. 
When  the  Orthodox  Meeting  House  was  dedicated, 
in  1825,  the  services  were  protracted.  Deacon 
Parkman's  daughter  said  to  a  little  gathering  of 
young  people  as  they  came  out,  "  You  have  had 
quite  a  feast,"  to  which  Rockwood  Hoar,  aged 
about  ten,  answered,  "Yes,  weVe  had  enough, 
which  is  said  to  be  as  good  as  a  feast." 

Rockwood  recorded  among  the  memories  of  his 
childhood  a  romantic  day  with  Henry  Vose,  after 
wards  a  judge:  "  When  he  and  I  were  about  eight 
years  old,  we  had  a  Fourth  of  July  picnic  together, 
and  we  made  a  tent  in  the  woods  out  of  an  old 
door,  and  what  was  the  most  astonishing  part  of  the 
picnic  was  that  my  mother  furnished  us  with  a 
bottle  of  punch  to  take  with  us.  That  shows  the 
difference  with  regard  to  the  use  of  liquor  in  that 
age  from  this.  I  remember,  as  a  boy,  that,  when 
any  young  child  died  in  the  town,  the  pall-bear- 


14        EBENEZER  ROCKWOOD   HOAR 

ers  were  selected  among  the  young  boys,  and  a 
room  was  set  aside  for  them  in  which  a  table  was 
set  with  bottles  of  rum,  whiskey  and  gin,  and  each 
of  the  boys  freely  partook." 

Children  nowadays  begin  to  go  to  school  at  six 
years  of  age  ;  when  they  have  parents  of  advanced 
ideas,  at  seven.  They  may  begin  Latin  at  ten  or 
eleven  and  are  fortunate  if  they  have  any  Greek 
at  all.  From  Rockwood  Hoar's  sketch  of  his  life 
in  the  book  of  his  Class  (H.  U.  1835),  comes  the 
following :  — 

"Nothing  of  historical  importance  occurred 
until,  at  the  age  of  six,  I  commenced  the  study  of 
the  ancient  languages  at  our  Village  Academy, 
which  school  I  continued  to  attend  from  that  time 
forth  until  entering  College.  There  was  a  succes 
sion  of  instructors,  most  of  them  as  bad  as  could 
reasonably  be  desired." 

His  father  intended  that  his  boys  should  not 
miss,  because  of  their  bookwork,  the  wholesome 
schooling  of  Mother  Earth  in  the  veritable  "  ele 
ments,"  and  should  learn  how  to  win  a  living  from 
her.  So  they  were  sent  in  turn  for  a  year  before 
they  went  to  college  to  a  kinsman  in  Lincoln,  in 
whose  household  the  old  New  England  simplicity, 
frugality  and  piety  prevailed. 

Rockwood's  visit  to  Lincoln  was  when  the  boy 
was  fourteen  years  old,  and  had  already  been  fitted 
for  college.  Fate,  however,  decided  not  to  smile  on 
the  farming  experiment.  The  Farrar  family,  with 


BIRTH   AND   EDUCATION  15 

which  he  was  placed,  still  kept  up  the  healthy  and 
economical  habit  of  early  New  England  in  going 
barefoot  six  months  of  the  year  on  the  farm. 
Such  was  the  common  custom  in  all  rural  districts. 
The  new  apprentice  in  farming,  the  first  day  of 
his  work,  went  out  into  the  hayfield,  and,  barefoot, 
trod  on  a  scythe,  cutting  his  foot  so  badly  that  he 
was  laid  up  for  some  time  and  never  quite  recov 
ered  a  perfect  foot. 

As  has  been  mentioned,  he  was  prepared  for 
college  at  the  old  Academy,  then  supported  by 
persons  who  wished  and  could  afford  to  give  their 
sons  and  daughters  better  educational  advantages 
than  the  "  Town  School "  could  afford.  Among 
his  school-fellows  were  his  sisters,  and  there  was 
an  eager  rivalry  in  scholarship  between  Elizabeth 
and  Rockwood  Hoar  and  their  bright  opposite 
neighbors,  the  Whitings.  But  the  former  were 
obliged  to  go  to  bed  early.  They  devised  a  way  to 
secure  more  time  for  their  lessons  and  yet  keep 
the  letter  of  the  household  law.  They  went  punc 
tually  to  bed,  but  early  rising  was  held  a  virtue  ; 
so  they  rose  quietly  while  still  the  hours  were 
small,  raked  out  the  brands  of  last  evening's  wood- 
fire  in  the  open  fireplace,  piled  on  kindlings  and 
fresh  wood,  and  by  that  cheerful  light  studied 
their  Virgil  and  arithmetic,  while  their  parents 
slept. 

When  Rockwood  Hoar  was  one  of  the  upper- 
class  boys  in  the  Academy,  the  master  said  to  him: 


16        EBENEZER  ROCKWOOD   HOAR 

"That  word  is  incorrectly  spelled.  It  should  be 
thus" — giving  his  version.  "Where  do  you  find 
authority  for  that  spelling?"  said  the  boy,  the 
man  of  precedents  in  after  years.  The  master 
named  the  authority.  "He's  of  less  importance 
than  the  others  who  spell  it  as  I  do." — "Well, 
you  can  spell  it  as  I  say  on  my  authority,"  said 
the  master.  "  The  least  of  all ! "  observed  the 
saucy  boy. 

In  the  summer  of  1831,  Rockwood  Hoar,  then 
fifteen  years  old,  went  to  Cambridge,  as  a  Fresh 
man.  He  wrote  in  his  Class-book,  when  he  was 
four  years  older,  this  account  of  the  changes  which 
the  College  had  wrought  in  him,  and  his  apprecia 
tion  of  the  result :  — 

"I  entered  college  with  a  high  opinion  of  my 
own  talents  and  acquirements  ;  expecting  that  col 
lege  distinctions  and  general  admiration  would 
follow  rather  as  a  necessary  consequence  of  my 
own  transcendent  merit,  than  as  the  reward  of 
persevering  and  well-directed  exertion.  Of  the 
manners,  customs,  habits  of  thought  and  action  of 
the  place  to  which  I  was  going,  I  knew  little  or 
nothing  ;  but  expected  to  find  the  views,  and  feel 
ings,  and  tastes  of  every  one  exactly  similar  to  my 
own ;  to  lead  an  agreeable  life  with  nothing  to 
trouble  or  to  mortify. 

"  The  effect  which  college  life  would  have  upon 
such  a  character,  may  readily  be  conceived.  I  found 
that  there  were  some  pretty  severe  lessons  yet  to 


BIRTH  AND  EDUCATION  17 

be  learned ;  and  the  struggle  in  casting  off  old 
notions  and  feelings,  was  not  to  be  gone  through 
without  difficulty.  If  everything,  during  the  last 
four  years,  has  not  been  so  agreeable  as  it  might 
have  been,  the  time  has,  at  least,  not  been  passed 
without  improvement.  I  have  each  year  been  more 
and  more  satisfied,  that  for  the  test  and  establish 
ment  of  character,  no  better  place  could  be  se 
lected  than  Harvard  University. 

"  Yet  my  college  life  has  been  by  no  means  an 
unpleasant  one.  All  causes  of  discomfort  have 
sprung,  I  am  well  aware,  from  myself,  and  my 
own  mistakes  alone.  A  more  united,  generous 
class,  better,  kinder  classmates,  I  could  not  have 
had." 

Fifty  years  later  he  wrote  :  — 

"At  the  head  of  the  College  was  the  bearer  of 
that  great  historic  name,  Josiah  Quincy,  who, 
though  he  heard  no  recitation  and  gave  no  course 
of  lectures,  was  in  himself  a  text-book.  It  might 
be  said  of  him,  as  Colonel  Barre  said  of  Lord 
Chatham,  that  'nobody  ever  entered  his  closet 
who  did  not  come  out  a  braver  man/  He  did  great 
service  to  the  College,  but  none  more  valuable  than 
the  impression  which  his  lofty  courage,  untiring 
devotion  to  duty,  and  public  spirit  made  upon  the 
sixteen  classes  which  were  under  his  charge. 

"  Of  those  who  managed  it  fifty  years  ago,  all 
but  one,  I  believe,  are  gone.  Good,  unsuspicious, 
near-sighted,  large-hearted  man !  How  we  used 


18        EBENEZER  ROCKWOOD   HOAR 

to  cheat  him  at  recitation,  and  how  the  great 
service  and  honoured  name  of  Dr.  Peabody  puts  to 
shame  the  memory  of  such  boyish  misbehaviour !  " 

Ebenezer  Rockwood  Hoar  had  for  his  chum 
Eben  Smith  Brooks,  from  the  neighboring  town 
of  Stow. 

The  class  of  1835  on  entrance  numbered  about 
eighty,  many  of  them  men  afterwards  well  known 
for  their  virtues  and  abilities.  Among  these  were 
Amos  A.  Lawrence,  founder  of  many  important 
factories,  and  a  useful  and  public-spirited  citizen; 
Charles  Henry  Parker,  long  the  President  of  the 
Suffolk  Savings  Bank;  Dr.  Charles  V.  Bemis,  valued 
practitioner  of  medicine ;  George  Bemis,  the  well- 
known  lawyer;  Frederick  A.  Eustis  of  Milton,  be 
loved  and  interesting  Southerner;  Charles  C. 
Shackf ord,  minister,  scholar  and  teacher ;  Charles 
W.  Palfrayof  Salem;  Edward  Lander,  Chief  Jus 
tice  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  Washington  Terri 
tory  ;  Francis  A.  Fabens,  later  a  judge  in  San 
Francisco.  Another  classmate,  Charles  W.  Storey, 
was  an  especial  crony  of  the  Judge  and  of  James 
Russell  Lowell  and  John  Holmes,  though  Lowell 
was  of  a  younger  class.  Richard  Henry  Dana  was 
obliged  to  leave  the  class  early  because  of  bad  eyes, 
and  to  this  temporary  misfortune  America  owes 
her  classic  "  Two  Years  before  the  Mast." 

But  very  early  in  its  career  the  class  sustained 
heavy  losses,  some  of  them  permanent,  from 
another  cause,  namely,  the  Rebellion  of  1831, 


BIRTH  AND   EDUCATION  19 

which  is  thus  described  by  Charles  Francis  Adams 
in  his  life  of  R.  H.  Dana :  — 

"Before  the  end  of  his  Freshman  year,  one  of 
those  college  difficulties,  much  more  common  then 
than  now,  and  absurdly  called  'rebellion/  took 
place.  It  soon  involved  the  whole  class.  It  was  the 
familiar  story.  Some  offence  had  been  committed 
and  '  a  charity  student '  was  called  upon  to  di 
vulge  the  name  of  the  culprit.  He  refused,  and,  the 
matter  having  got  into  the  courts  of  law,  was  sum 
moned  as  a  witness.  A  class-meeting  was  there 
upon  held  and  resolutions  to '  sustain  our  class 
mates  '  were  passed.  The  '  Rebellion '  naturally 
followed,  breaking  out,  of  course,  at  evening 
prayers,  when  a  continued  tumult  of  hissing,  groan 
ing  and  scraping  completely  drowned  the  voice  of 
the  officiating  clergyman.  This  brought  Mr.  Quincy 
from  his  seat,  and  two  or  three  tutors  from  the 
galleries.  '  They  watched  us  closely,  but  the  noise 
continued  throughout  the  reading  and  until  the 
prayer  commenced,  when  it  stopped.  .  .  .  There 
was  open  rebellion/  Some  of  the  class  were  sent 
away  and  others  were  taken  away  temporarily  by 
their  parents.  For  such  as  remained  the  alternative 
of  suspension  or  expulsion  was  presented." 

As  the  circles  around  the  vortex  resulting  from 
the  collision  of  a  class  with  the  Faculty  inevitably 
widened,  Rockwood  Hoar  seems  to  have  been 
drawn  in.  His  sisters  beheld  him  with  alarm  step 
out  from  the  stage-coach,  as  it  stopped  at  the  gate, 


20        EBENEZER  ROCKWOOD   HOAR 

and  it  was  an  anxious  moment  when  he  met  his 
father.  The  boy  however  was  soon  readmitted  to 
good  standing. 

The  Judge  gave  this  account  of  the  Rebellion 
seen  through  the  perspective  of  fifty-four  years, 
when  he,  an  officer  of  the  University,  touched  on  it 
in  his  speech  at  the  Commencement  Dinner :  — 

"  The  class  of  1835  had  a  hand  in  a  first-rate 
rebellion.  It  was  made  in  defence  of  our  inalien 
able  rights  and  was  conducted  with  the  utmost 
vigor  and  activity ;  and  yet  from  this  point  of 
view  it  looks  like  something  of  a  failure.  The 
fact  is  that  Mr.  Quincy  was  on  the  other  side,  and 
did  not  take  to  it  at  all  kindly.  I  think  we  felt 
about  it,  when  it  was  over,  and  had  taken  from  us 
some  of  our  best  fellows,  pretty  much  what  a 
handsome,  bright-eyed  young  fellow  expressed  to 
me,  whom  I  met  on  the  Kanawha  River  at  the 
close  of  the  late  war,  making  his  way  home  from 
a  military  prison  in  Ohio.  I  said  to  him, '  Now  you 
are  going  home  to  stay,  I  suppose  ? '  '  Yes/  said 
he,  '  I  have  had  my  rights  and  don't  ever  want  to 
have  any  more  of  them/  " 

In  the  same  speech  the  Judge  thus  sketched  for 
the  younger  Alumni  the  difference  between  the 
old  times  and  the  new :  — 

"  How  we  should  have  compared  with  the  boys 
of  later  times,  if  we  had  had  their  advantages,  no 
body  can  tell.  We  never  acquired  enough  of  that 
disastrous  Greek,  which  has  blighted  the  prospects 


BIRTH  AND  EDUCATION  21 

of  the  Adams  family  through  so  many  genera 
tions,  to  do  us  much  harm.  I  have  noticed,  by  the 
way,  that  they  seem  to  have  an  inveterate  habit 
of  turning  up  in  places  of  trust  and  honor,  in 
spite  of  it.  We  never  undertook  to  beat  all  our 
contemporaries  at  baseball  and  the  like,  and  then 
sighed  for  new  worlds  to  conquer,  but  I  may 
modestly  suggest  that  in  our  Senior  year,  though 
there  was  no  Hemenway  Gymnasium,  no  athletics, 
no  coaching,  two  of  our  class,  —  one  of  whom,  a 
sturdy  Virginian,  is  with  us  at  these  tables,  and 
looks  as  if  he  could  repeat  the  feat  without  incon 
venience, — on  a  summer's  day  walked  the  sixty 
miles  from  Cambridge  to  New  Bedford." 

Of  course  the  games  of  those  days  were  played 
impromptu  and  for  fun  on  the  Delta,  alike  by 
skilled  and  unskilled,  —  general  public  opinion 
and  honor  acting  as  referee  and  umpire ;  and  not 
for  the  credit  of  the  University,  afar,  in  some 
great  arena  under  the  eyes  of  thousands,  by  a 
trained  and  coached  team  sifted  from  the  strong 
est  and  swiftest. 

The  rudimentary  "  Massachusetts  game  "  of  base 
ball  existed,  permitting  "back  passers"  ("fouls") 
to  the  batsman,  and  allowing  the  catcher  to  "out" 
the  base-runner  by  throwing  the  ball  at  him,  - 
but  Rockwood  Hoar  was  disqualified  by  near-sight. 
Foot-ball  in  sides  of  indefinite  numbers,  strictly 
confined  to  kicking  and  running,  was  everywhere 
played,  but  more  commonly  the  ball  (leather  with 


22        EBENEZER  ROCKWOOD   HOAR 

a  pig's  bladder  for  nucleus)  was  punted  about  at 
will.  The  Judge's  classmate,  Charles  H.  Parker, 
writing  to  him  in  1885,  says,  "I  am  grieved  to 
hear  of  your  troublesome  leg,  and  am  afraid  it  is 
the  one  of  ancient  memory  that  used,  in  1831,  to 
throw  the  foot-ball  to  such  a  height." 

Rowing  an  old  keel-boat  on  the  Charles,  very 
likely  fishing  at  the  same  time,  was  also  occasion 
ally  practised,  but  there  were  no  races. 

In  Concord,  no  one  kept  horses  for  pleasure, 
and  chaises  hired  at  livery  stables  for  such  pur 
pose  were  a  culpable  extravagance.  Hence  all 
boys  in  those  days  were  good  walkers,  and  if 
Rockwood  Hoar  wanted  to  spend  a  Saturday  or 
Sunday  at  home,  he  walked  the  thirteen  miles  up 
the  hilly  but  pleasant  Turnpike,  or  Trapelo  Road, 
as  did  the  Concord  boys  of  the  next  generation. 

It  does  not  appear  that  he  belonged  to  the  Col 
lege  military  company,  that  gallant  band  with 
banner  inscribed  Tarn  Marti  quam  Mercurio,  indi 
cating  as  close  a  devotion  to  martial  as  to  classical 
studies,  to  which  motto  Lowell  said  should  have 
been  added  Atque  magis  Lyseo.  That  this  organiza 
tion  was  suppressed  at  this  period,  and  also  that 
society  more  dangerous  to  the  peace,  the  "  Med. 
Fac.,"  might  appear  from  the  lament  over  them 
in  the  Class  poem  of  1835.  The  Judge  confessed 
once  to  his  eldest  son,  after  the  latter  was  safely 
through  College,  that  he  had  belonged  to  the 
"  Med.  Fac.,"  adding  that,  fortunately,  that  focus 


BIRTH  AND  EDUCATION  23 

of  daring  mischief  was  long  since  dead,  which 
statement  his  son  received  with  a  face  of  inno 
cent  interest  covering  an  inward  smile.  Mrs. 
Storer  said  that  her  brother  Rockwood  used  to  tell 
of  the  wretched  midnight  hours  during  which  he 
lay  on  his  back  in  the  belfry  of  Harvard  Hall 
laboring  to  saw  off  the  tongue  of  the  College  bell 
which  called  students  —  alike  the  pious  and  the 
impious  —  to  morning  prayers. 

But  in  spite  of  diversions  and  probable  convivi 
alities,  both  on  a  humbler  scale  than  now,  the 
Judge's  whole  walk  and  conversation  showed  that 
in  the  first  twenty  years  of  his  life  at  home,  dame- 
school,  academy,  farm  and  college,  he  received  an 
education  which  would  grace  any  citizen  of  this 
Republic.  The  fact  was  that  life,  even  for  chil 
dren  and  youth,  was  far  more  serious  and  less 
distracting  than  now.  The  subjects  of  study  were 
few,  sanctioned  as  valuable  by  the  centuries. 
Children  learned  to  read  from  the  Bible  with  its 
noble  English,  its  wide  vocabulary,  its  stimulation 
not  only  of  moral  sense  but  of  imagination,  and 
its  poetic  symbolism,  instead  of  from  graded 
readers.  They  began  to  study  sooner  by  several 
years,  and  worked  longer  and  harder  in  each  year. 
Children's  books  were  few,  too  few,  but  those 
were  good,  so  their  minds  were  able  earlier  to  en 
joy  Bunyan,  Milton,  Shakespeare,  Scott  and  Byron 
and  Burns  (all  three  then  new),  Young  and  Thom 
son,  Wordsworth,  Johnson  and  the  Essayists,  and 


24       EBENEZER  ROCKWOOD   HOAR 

from  all  these  their  fresh  memories  were  stored, 
for  it  was  the  excellent  custom  to  have  children 
and  youths  learn  passages  to  recite.  So  with  the 
languages,  they  read  with  maturer,  if  younger, 
minds  the  stories  of  Roman  virtue,1  Virgil,  Horace, 
and  Cicero's  Orations,  and  could  enjoy  them,  for 
they  were  not  hurried  or  crowded  by  a  multipli 
city  of  studies  in  preparation  for  over-exacting 
examinations. 

Rockwood  Hoar's  mind  had  a  strong  affinity  for 
all  that  was  noble  in  sentiment,  fine  in  expression, 
and  keen  in  wit,  and  what  he  read  he  remem 
bered.  Among  his  college  papers  is  a  "  Disser 
tation,"  delivered  in  his  Senior  year,  "On  Making 
a  Study  of  the  Fine  Arts  a  Part  of  a  Liberal  Edu 
cation,"  an  excellent  and  very  well  written  state 
ment  in  favor  of  so  doing.  Coming  from  a  son  of 
the  Puritans,  at  a  time  so  barren  of  art  in  New 
England,  one  passage  is  remarkable.  Speaking  of 
the  stern  iconoclasm,  and  repression  of  painting 
and  fine  music  by  the  leaders  of  the  Reformation, 
he  says  :  "  They  swept  away  wheat  and  tares  to 
gether,  and,  with  the  sinfully  worshipped  images, 
banished  from  religion  all  that  support  which  it  is 
one  of  the  highest  objects  of  the  Arts  to  afford." 
In  the  same  way  this  country  boy  urged  a  point 
of  first  importance,  ignored  to-day  by  many  mas 
ters  of  brush  or  chisel,  —  the  need  of  filling  the 

i  The  admirable  Viri  Roma,  now  discarded,  for  alleged  defect  in 
Ciceronian  style,  in  favor  of  some  useless  "  Gate  to  Caesar;-, 


BIRTH  AND  EDUCATION  25 

mind  with  high  ideas  and  sublime  images,  rightly 
to  practise  or  appreciate  Art.  His  own  wide  ac 
quaintance  with  the  best  thought  of  mankind  as 
guarded  for  us  in  classic  literature,  ancient  or 
modern,  prepared  him  to  appreciate  the  masters, 
had  time  and  opportunity  permitted.  Lacking 
these,  he  remained  something  of  a  Philistine  in 
art  to  the  end,  and  cherished  an  iron  dog  as  an 
ornament  on  his  doorsteps.1 

Of  his  college  life  little  remains  to  say.  In  his 
Junior  and  Senior  years  he  attracted  the  attention 
of  Edward  Tyrrel  Channing,  then  the  valued  Pro 
fessor  of  Rhetoric  and  Oratory,  and  received  the 
highest  marks  for  English  Composition.  He  also 
won  the  second  Bowdoin  prize  for  an  essay,  and  at 
the  Exhibition  in  his  Senior  year  had,  as  his  part, 
the  English  oration,  taking  as  his  subject  "  Rever 
ence."  His  part  at  Commencement  when  he  grad 
uated  was  an  English  oration  on  "  The  Christian 
Philosophy  ;  its  Political  Application." 

Only  fifty-two  of  his  class  received  degrees  at 
Commencement,  largely  a  result  of  the  "  Rebel 
lion,"  but  five  more  were  allowed  their  Bachelor's 
degree  years  later.  Rockwood  Hoar  was  third 
scholar.  The  refined  and  attractive  Harrison  Gray 
Otis  Blake  of  Worcester,  later  Thoreau's  near 
friend,  was  chosen  Orator  by  a  large  majority, 

1  The  Judge  used  to  justify  this  unhappy  combination  of  paint 
ing  and  sculpture  by  saying  that  it  was  "Nature's  own  truth," 
since  once  he  found  a  flea  upon  it. 


26        EBENEZER  ROCKWOOD  HOAR 

but  his  modesty  made  him  decline,  and  Charles  C. 
Shackford,  later  a  minister,  and  a  professor  at 
Cornell  University,  was  then  chosen.  Blake,  how 
ever,  gave  the  Latin  Salutatory.  Benjamin  Davis 
Winslow  was  the  Poet.  Hoar  was  chosen  a  mem 
ber  of  the  Class  Committee.  Sixty  years  later,  his 
classmate  Palf ray  of  Salem  wrote,  "  Judge  Hoar 
was,  from  the  first,  the  pride  and  ornament  of  his 
class  — facile  princeps.  His  affection  for  his  class 
mates  too  was  as  remarkable  as  it  was  undimin- 
ished."  Throughout  his  life  on  many  occasions 
and  in  many  ways  he  showed  his  never-failing 
loyalty  to  the  College  with  which  his  family  had 
so  long  been  associated. 

On  leaving  College,  Hoar  wrote  in  the  Class 
Book,  "  With  regard  to  the  future,  I  have  for  some 
time  determined  upon  the  profession  of  the  Law ; 
and  hope  to  contribute  my  humble  efforts  to  sus 
tain  the  reputation  of  the  Class  of  1835.  In  the 
true  professional  style,  —  if  my  friends  and  the 
public  have  at  any  time  occasion  to  make  use  of 
my  services,  I  shall  be  happy  to  wait  on  them  — 
'for  a  consideration/" 

But  first  he  had  the  valuable  experience  of 
leaving  Massachusetts  and  all  boyish  social  ties, 
and  looking  life  in  the  face  by  earning  his  living. 

The  graduate  of  nineteen  went  to  take  charge 
of  a  school  for  girls  in  Pittsburg,  Pennsylvania, 
then  practically  as  far  away  as  Oregon  is  now.  It 
is  clear  that  the  year  was  valuable  to  the  young 


BIRTH   AND   EDUCATION  27 

teacher,  and  left  pleasant  memories.  He  probably 
helped  many  pupils  ;  certainly  was  worth  much  to 
one.  There  was  in  the  school  a  child,  Lois  Wade, 
who  afterwards  became  Mrs.  Campbell  of  Pitts- 
burg,  and  the  step-aunt  of  Mrs.  Margaret  Deland, 
the  novelist.  This  lady  writes  that  Lois  was  then 
only  nine  years  old,  and  considered  a  dull  little 
girl,  but  to  the  surprise  of  her  parents,  Mr.  Hoar 
urged  her  to  study  Latin.  "  Her  later  remarkable 
linguistic  ability  proved  him  to  have  been  quite 
right.  Indeed,  her  intelligence  and  power  dated 
from  that  time,  and  I  know  she  felt  the  deepest 
sense  of  obligation  to  a  teacher  whose  insight  into 
character  was  an  inspiration  and  an  awakening  - 
a  sense  of  obligation  as  well  as  admiration  and 
love  which  lasted  until  her  death,  sixty  years  from 
that  day  when  he  put  her  Latin  Grammar  into 
her  hands." 

Fifty-four  years  passed  away,  and  Judge  Hoar, 
on  his  Golden  Wedding  day,  received  a  letter 
from  the  elderly  Mrs.  Campbell,  in  which  she 
said,  "While  congratulating  you  and  Mrs.  Hoar 
on  this  long  life  together,  may  I  express  to  you 
my  most  sincere  thanks  for  all  that  you  did  for 
me  during  the  year  that  you  spent  in  Pittsburg  ? 
It  was  a  turning  point  in  my  life,  and  I  have  ever 
since  had  reason  to  be  grateful  to  you,  not  only 
for  what  you  taught  me,  but  for  the  stimulus  and 
encouragement  you  gave  me  for  study  after  you 
ceased  to  be  my  teacher." 


28        EBENEZER  ROCKWOOD  HOAR 

There  is  a  letter  from  the  Judge  written  to  a 
clergyman  in  Pittsburg,  speaking  pleasantly  of  his 
teaching  days  there,  and  accompanied  by  a  gift  of 
one  hundred  dollars  towards  a  lot  for  a  Unitarian 
Church  in  that  great  city,  dark  and  noisy  with  its 
enormous  work-shops,  grown  out  of  the  little 
settlement  at  old  Fort  Duquesne. 

To  see  a  little  more  of  the  newer  world  beyond 
the  Appalachians,  the  youth  on  leaving  Pitts- 
burg  travelled  to  Kentucky.  He  used  to  tell  that, 
having  tarried  overnight  at  a  wayside  tavern,  he 
rose  early,  and,  when  he  came  down,  a  Kentuckian 
who  was  staying  there  ordered  a  gin  cocktail  and 
invited  the  young  fellow-lodger  to  drink  with 
him.  The  New  Englander  answered  that  he  did  not 
want  a  cocktail  before  breakfast,  thus  offending 
his  benevolent  friend,  who  remarked  that  seven 
teen  was  about  the  right  number  to  take  before 
that  meal.  He  had  the  interesting  experience  of 
hearing  Henry  Clay  speak  to  a  vast  audience  in 
the  open  air ;  also  of  being  robbed  on  a  river- 
boat;  but  got  safely  back  to  Concord. 

Once  more  in  the  old  home,  he  began  the  study 
of  law  in  his  father's  office,  a  little  one-storey 
building,  painted  white,  on  the  Sudbury  road  where 
it  branches  from  the  Main  Street.  The  restful  sim 
plicity  of  our  village  life  then  could  hardly  now 
be  matched  in  Eastern  Massachusetts.  A  glimpse 
of  it  is  given  in  a  letter  from  the  acolyte  lawyer  to 
the  little  ten-year-old  Lois  Wade  at  Pittsburg :  — 


BIRTH  AND  EDUCATION  29 

"  I  am  settled  quietly  at  home  for  the  winter, 
how  quietly  you,  who  live  in  the  bustle  and  noise 
and  business  of  such  a  city  as  Pittsburg,  can 
hardly  imagine.  Our  little  village  is  situated  on  a 
plain  surrounded  by  woods  and  low  hills ;  a  small 
river,  with  a  current  scarcely  perceptible,  and  with 
meadows  on  both  sides,  flows  gently  through  it, 
and,  as  I  walk  through  the  street  to  my  office, 
I  hardly  see  a  moving  thing,  unless  now  and  then 
some  one  coming  out  of  a  shop  and  shutting  the 
door  carefully  behind  them.  And  here  I  live  and 
study  all  day,  for  from  a  teacher  I  have  become  a 
scholar,  —  and  in  the  evenings  read  or  visit  or  go 
to  lectures,  —  for  there  are  now  few  villages  in 
New  England  so  small  that  they  do  not  have  a 
course  of  literary,  historical,  or  scientific  lectures 
each  winter,  in  which  the  educated  men,  and 
among  them  some  of  the  first  names  in  our  land, 
communicate  of  their  knowledge  to  all  classes  of 
the  people. 

"  I  am  now  reading,  with  a  young  lady,  a  book, 
one  of  the  pleasantest  and  most  interesting  that 
I  have  read  for  some  time,  and  which  I  hope  you 
will  sometime  read  also.  It  is  called  the  '  Phasdo/ 
and  contains  an  eloquent  account  of  the  conversa 
tion,  instructions  and  death  of  Socrates,  —  you 
must  not  be  surprised  when  I  tell  you  that  it  is 
written  in  Greek."  He  speaks  pleasantly  of  the 
school  and  scholars,  and  says,  "  You  must  tell  me 
about  these  things,  .  .  .  for,  though  so  many  hun- 


30        EBENEZER  ROCKWOOD   HOAR 

dred  miles  off  beyond  the  blue  Alleghanies,  I  feel 
as  much  interested  in  all  that  you  are  doing,  and 
think  of  you,  as  a  part  of  my  flock,  as  much  as 


ever." 


A  certain  guarded  propriety  strikes  one  in  the 
end  of  this  sentence  addressed  by  a  gentleman  in 
his  twentieth  year  to  a  lady  of  ten,  fortified  withal 
by  the  account  of  the  Plato  readings  with  another, 
presumably  Deacon  Whiting's  accomplished  elder 
daughter,  then  in  her  teens.  Plato,  even  in  such 
charming  company,  did  not  win  him  from  the  law, 
for  Justice  Gray  tells  us  that  when  he  read  Kent's 
Commentaries  he  verified  every  citation  and  read 
every  case  cited,  using  the  library  in  Concord  so 
far  as  it  contained  the  reports,  and  getting  them 
elsewhere  when  it  did  not.  Such  a  careful  study  of 
Kent  was  in  itself  a  legal  education. 

His  studies  were  continued  at  the  Law  School 
at  Cambridge  for  eighteen  months,  and  then  for 
six  months  in  the  office  of  Emory  Washburn  at 
Worcester,  where  he  was  admitted  to  the  bar  on 
September  30,  1839,  after  receiving  the  degree  of 
LL.B.  from  the  Harvard  Law  School  at  the  pre 
ceding  Commencement. 

While  Rockwood  Hoar  was  studying  law  in  Cam 
bridge,  the  following  record  was  made  in  the 
Faculty's  Book  there :  "Voted,  that  Lowell,  Senior, 
on  account  of  continued  neglect  of  his  college 
duties,  be  suspended  till  the  Saturday  before 
Commencement  to  pursue  his  studies  with  Mr. 


BIRTH  AND  EDUCATION  31 

Frost  in  Concord  .  .  .  and  not  to  visit  Cambridge 
during  the  period  of  his  suspension." l  This  was  for 
the  period  of  three  months,  yet  he  made  lasting 
friendships  there,  one  of  which  threatened  to  go 
further.  In  August,  in  a  letter  to  George  B.  Loring, 
he  thus  speaks  of  it :  "  I  do  not  know  what  to  do 

with  Miss .    She  runs  in  my  head  and  heart 

more  than  she  has  any  right  to,  but  then  — 

A  pair  of  black  eyes 

Of  a  charming  size, 
And  a  lip  so  prettily  curled,  0! 

Are  enough  to  capsize 

The  intentions  wise 
Of  any  man  of  the  world,  0 ! 

Oh  a  gentle  heart 

Is  the  better  part 
Of  a  lovely  woman's  looks,  0! 

And  I  totter  on  the  brink 

Of  love  when  I  think, 
When  I  think,  when  I  think  of  Miss  B ,  0! 

"By  Jove!  I  like  that  better  than  anything  I've 
written  for  two  years.  I  wrote  it  con  amore  and 
currente  calamo. " 

The  fair  one  thus  celebrated  was  Caroline,  the 
daughter  of  Squire  Nathan  Brooks.  Two  years 
earlier,  when  Rockwood  Hoar  had  spent  his  days 
in  study  at  his  father's  office,  she  was,  no  doubt, 
playing  about  her  father's  yard  exactly  opposite  ; 

1  See  James  Russell  Lowell,  by  Horace  E.  Scudder,  from  which 
also  are  quoted  the  verses  following. 


32        EBENEZER  ROCKWOOD   HOAR 

and  in  the  evenings,  when  he  was  reading  Plato 
with  another,  she  was  in  bed.  Lowell's  time  of 
rustication  was  so  short  that  he  escaped  complete 
enthralment,  but  Rockwood  at  Cambridge  heard 
his  mates  in  the  Law  School  talking  of  a  visit  to 
Concord  and  of  a  young  girl  there  who  had  sung 
to  them  and  fascinated  them.  "  About  whom  are 
you  talking?"— "Caroline  Brooks."— "I  think 
I  had  better  go  up  and  take  a  look  at  her."  He  did 
so ;  to  her  lover's  good  opportunity,  strong  and 
clear  mind  and  faithful  industry  she  added  an 
incentive,  and  on  November  20,  1840,  he  married 
Caroline  Downes  Brooks. 

The  young  people  began  their  domestic  life  in 
the  eastern  half  of  the  double  house  on  the  Main 
Street,  close  to  Squire  Hoar's,  which  furnished 
shelter  in  turn  to  many  new-married  couples.  The 
marriage  proved  a  very  happy  one,  and  the  rising 
lawyer  greatly  enjoyed  domestic  life,  although  Mrs. 
Hoar's  health  was  not  good  for  many  years.  In  due 
time  seven  children  were  born  to  them,  namely, 
Caroline,  Sarah  Sherman  (died  in  infancy),  Samuel, 
Charles  Emerson,  Clara  Downes,  Elizabeth  and 
Sherman. 


CHAPTER  II 

LAW  AND  POLITICS 

To  one  who  knows  only  the  Concord  of  the  last 
half-century  it  might  seem  strange  that  an  able 
and  aspiring  young  lawyer  should  choose  this  little 
country  town  for  the  centre  of  his  work.  It  is  in 
deed  recorded  that  an  eminent  lawyer  of  an  elder 
day  whose  associations  were  all  with  Boston,  se 
lected  Billerica  as  the  place  in  which  to  open  his 
first  office.  When  asked  why  he  chose  Billerica, 
he  said,  "  Well,  I  had  to  break  into  the  world  some 
where  and  Billerica  was  the  weakest  spot  I  knew." 
This  was  not  young  Hoar's  reason  for  choosing 
Concord.  Boston,  with  but  a  small  fraction  of  its 
present  population,  was  as  far  off  then  as  Spring 
field  or  Hartford  is  now,  according  as  one  took  the 
express  or  accommodation  stage-coach,  the  former 
running  but  three  times  a  week.  Concord,  a  shire- 
town,  was  an  important  centre,  especially  for  the 
through  traffic  by  team;  and  the  farmers  passing 
on  their  wagons,  or  the  keepers  of  the  large 
country  stores,  needed  or  desired  legal  advice. 

Twice  in  the  year  the  session  of  the  court  for 
from  two  to  four  weeks  gave  dignity  and  import 
ance  to  the  town.  Wesson's,  Bigelow's  and  Shep- 
ard's  taverns  were  filled  with  guests,  and  their 


34        EBENEZER  ROCKWOOD   HOAR 

stables  with  horses,  while  the  chaises  and  buggies 
solidly  packed  on  the  Common  occupied  perhaps 
an  eighth  of  an  acre.  When  the  Court  House  bell 
clanged  its  loud  summons,  the  sheriff  and  his 
deputies  in  uniform,  with  sword  and  long  staves 
respectively,  waited  upon  the  Judge  at  the  tavern 
door,  and  escorted  him  to  the  court,  followed  by 
the  members  of  the  bar  in  due  order,  and  the 
constable  brought  the  manacled  prisoners  from 
the  jail  opposite.  All  the  leaders  of  the  bar  ap 
peared  at  Concord  in  those  days,  and  the  citizens 
flocked  to  hear  them  argue  and  to  admire  their 
skill  in  fence.  Indeed  court,  Muster  and  Cattle- 
show  weeks  broke  the  monotony  of  village  life, 
which,  in  the  absence  of  such  distractions,  moved 
no  faster  than  the  oxen  then  in  general  use. 

It  is  not  surprising  that  Rockwood  Hoar  met  with 
immediate  success  at  the  bar.  He  was  well  intro 
duced  by  the  established  reputation  of  his  father 
and  his  family  connection.  He  possessed  more 
over  in  unusual  measure  the  qualities  which  the 
old-fashioned  citizens  of  Massachusetts  prized, — 
common  sense,  directness,  honesty  and  a  keen  wit. 
He  understood  the  tastes  and  feelings  of  the  juries 
whom  he  addressed,  and  they  understood  him. 
They  believed  what  he  said,  approved  his  way  of 
saying  it,  and  enjoyed  his  quick  thrusts  at  his 
opponents.  He  was  a  sound  adviser  and  a  good 
fighter.  He  won  the  confidence  of  clients,  and  their 
confidence  was  justified  by  results.  He  won  a  high 


LAW  AND  POLITICS  35 

position  at  the  Middlesex  bar  when  it  was  recog 
nized  generally  as  an  able  and  hard-fighting  bar, 
and  numbered  among  its  members  were  Albert  H. 
Nelson,  Chief  Justice  of  the  Superior  Court  of 
Suffolk;  Josiah  G.  Abbott  of  the  same  court;  Judge 
Thomas  Hopkinson  ;  Judge  Seth  Ames ;  George  F. 
Farley  ;  Tappan  Wentworth  ;  Ephraim  Buttrick  ; 
Charles  R.  Train  and  Benjamin  F.  Butler. 

In  1842  the  young  lawyer  was  associated  with 
Daniel  Webster,  Franklin  Dexter  and  Rufus 
Choate  in  the  defence  of  William  Wyman,  who  was 
indicted  for  embezzling  the  funds  of  a  bank  in 
Charlestown.  This  case  was  tried  three  times, 
first  in  Concord,  then  in  Lowell,  finally  in  Concord. 
The  first  trial  resulted  in  a  disagreement,  the 
second  in  a  conviction  which  was  set  aside  by  the 
Supreme  Court.  Senator  Hoar  says  that  as  they 
were  going  into  the  Court  House  on  the  morn 
ing  of  the  third  trial  "Mr.  Choate  said  to  Mr. 
Hoar,  whose  chief  part  in  the  trial  so  far  had 
been  .  .  .  hunting  up  authorities  and  taking  notes 
of  the  evidence,  'You  made  a  suggestion  to  me  at 
the  last  trial  which  I  did  not  attend  to  much  at  the 
time,  but  I  remember  thinking  afterwards  that 
there  was  something  in  it/  Mr.  Hoar  replied,  '  It 
seems  to  me  that  Wyman  cannot  be  convicted 
of  embezzlement  unless  the  funds  of  the  bank 
were  entrusted  to  him.  They  must  either  have 
been  in  his  immediate  possession,  or  under  his 
control.  There  is  nothing  in  the  office  of  Pre- 


36        EBENEZER  ROCKWOOD  HOAR 

sident  which  involves  such  an  authority/  The 
facts  alleged  against  Wyman  were  that  he  had 
authorized  the  discount  of  the  notes  of  some 
friends  of  his  who  were  irresponsible,  and  that  he 
had  in  some  way  shared  the  proceeds.  Mr.  Choate 
seized  upon  the  suggestion.  .  .  .  When  the  Govern 
ment  case  closed,  the  counsel  asked  the  Court  to 
rule  that,  as  the  funds  were  never  entrusted  to 
the  possession  of  Wyman,  he  could  not  be  con 
victed  of  embezzlement.  The  Court  so  held  and 
directed  an  acquittal." 

This  case,  so  vigorously  contested  by  such  emi 
nent  counsel,  was  a  cause  celebre ;  but,  as  Senator 
Hoar  adds :  "  This  is  another  instance,  not  unusual 
in  trials  in  court,  of  the  truth  of  the  old  rhyme 
with  which  the  readers  of  Quentin  Durward  are 
familiar  — 

'The  page  slew  the  boar, 
The  peer  had  the  gloire/  " 

It  was  in  the  course  of  this  trial  that  Squire 
Hoar  said  to  his  son  when  he  came  home  at  night : 
"Well,  Rockwood,  how  is  Mr.  Webster  to-day?" 
to  which  the  son  replied :  "  Mr.  Webster,  father, 
has  a  bad  cold,  and  it  seems  to  have  settled  on  his 
temper."  Tantsene  animis  ccelestibus  irse  ? 

As  all  Americans  should,  Hoar  felt  his  responsi 
bility  as  a  citizen  and  bore  a  man's  part  in  the 
politics  of  the  time.  The  great  Harrison  campaign 
of  1840  offered  him  his  first  opportunity,  and  in 


LAW  AND  POLITICS  37 

the  spring  of  that  year  he  was  a  delegate  to  the 
Whig  Young  Men's  Convention  for  Middlesex 
County  and  was  chosen  secretary  of  the  conven 
tion.  In  the  autumn  he  spoke  frequently  for  the 
Whig  candidate  and  at  some  meetings  in  his 
district  was  the  principal  speaker.  He  also  deliv 
ered  an  address,  "The  Dignity  of  Labor,"  at  the 
Middlesex  Agricultural  Exhibition  on  October  7, 
1840,  of  which  a  contemporary  journal  said  it 
"  was  a  production  of  much  merit,  in  which  the 
orator  ably  vindicated  the  usefulness,  respectabil 
ity  and  dignity  of  labor."  Thus  he  began  to  lead 
his  fellow-citizens  almost  as  soon  as  he  was  ad 
mitted  to  the  bar. 

Judge  Keyes  bears  witness  to  his  executive 
ability  at  this  time,  which  he  says  was  shown  in 
connection  with  the  great  political  gathering  of 
Whigs  at  Concord  during  the  Harrison  campaign, 
when  not  only  were  the  roads  filled,  but  great 
numbers  came  on  canal-boats  poled  up  from  the 
Merrimac  and  even  from  the  Mystic  by  the  Mid 
dlesex  Canal.  A  bridge  of  these  boats  was  made 
at  the  Battle-ground,  and  the  "  Hard  Cider  Clubs  " 
literally  "  kept  the  ball  a-rolling  through  Concord 
streets  with  cries  of  '  Tippecanoe  and  Tyler  too.' ' 
The  young  lawyer  Hoar  was  chairman  of  the  ex 
ecutive  committee  and  did  himself  credit.  Again, 
in  1844,  in  the  campaign  between  Polk  and  Clay, 
his  abilities  were  tested. 

In  the  same  decade  was  a  celebration,  more  quiet 


38        EBENEZER  ROCKWOOD   HOAR 

and  of  far-reaching  purpose,  a  sober  festival  of  the 
workers  in  the  temperance  movement,  then  surely 
justified  in  New  England  and  which  did  great 
good.  Temperance  seems  then  to  have  been  used 
in  its  right  sense,  and  not  as  equivalent  to  total 
abstinence.  This  gathering  was  held  in  Deacon 
Brown's  pretty  pasture,  circled  with  a  ridge  of  oaks 
and  pines,  "  Sleepy  Hollow,"  then  reached  only  by 
a  lane.  The  chief  marshal  of  the  occasion,  glorious 
on  horseback,  presumably  with  beaver  hat,  broad 
blue  ribbon,  and  white  trousers,  was  young  Mr. 
Hoar,  —  the  nearest  approach  to  military  display 
ever  known  of  him. 

The  stream  of  events  was  bearing  the  country 
rapidly  toward  the  inevitable  rupture  between  the 
advocates  of  slavery  and  its  opponents.  The  rapid 
growth  of  the  free  North  and  West  threatened  to 
give  the  friends  of  freedom  the  control  of  the 
Senate,  and  hence  the  slave  owners  wished  to  re 
store  the  balance  by  adding  slave  states  on  the 
south.  To  carry  out  this  purpose  they  were  de 
termined  to  annex  Texas,  and  this  movement  was 
resisted  vigorously  in  the  North.  The  election  of 
Harrison  quieted  the  agitation,  but  when  Tyler 
succeeded  to  the  Presidency,  the  situation  was 
changed  and  in  1844  Calhoun  as  his  Secretary  of 
State  concluded  an  annexation  treaty  with  Texas. 
This  was  defeated  after  an  exciting  discussion  in 
June,  1844,  and  in  the  autumn  of  that  year  Polk 
was  elected  on  a  platform  favoring  immediate  an- 


LAW  AND   POLITICS  39 

nexation.  This  was  accomplished  by  joint  resolu 
tion  in  March,  1845,  and  Texas  being  now  terri 
tory  of  the  United  States,  the  question  arose 
whether  it  should  be  admitted  as  one  or  more  slave 
states.  As  the  Whigs  had  a  majority  in  the  House 
of  Representatives,  this  could  be  prevented  if 
they  stood  together,  and  hence  an  agitation  imme 
diately  began  against  the  admission  of  Texas. 

Until  the  annexation  was  accomplished,  the 
Whig  party  of  Massachusetts  under  the  lead  of 
Webster  and  Winthrop  had  been  united  against 
it.  When  however  Texas  had  been  annexed,  these 
leaders  seemed  disposed  to  abandon  the  contest 
and  to  take  up  other  issues,  and  hence  the  autumn 
of  1845  was  a  very  critical  moment  in  the  coun 
try's  history  as  well  as  in  the  politics  of  Massa 
chusetts.  It  was  then  that  Charles  Sumner  first 
took  part  in  a  political  meeting,  and  expressed  in 
public  his  opposition  to  slavery. 

In  any  event  Rockwood  Hoar  could  not  have 
helped  being  interested  in  the  contest  against  the 
annexation  of  Texas,  to  which  the  Whig  party 
was  so  strongly  opposed,  and  doubtless  his  feel 
ings  were  more  strongly  stirred  by  the  expulsion 
of  his  father  from  South  Carolina,  which  occurred 
in  November,  1844.  This  brought  directly  home 
to  him  the  lawless  intolerance  of  the  slaveholder, 
and  cannot  have  failed  to  move  deeply  a  man 
with  his  ingrained  regard  for  freedom  and  for 
law.  In  January,  1845,  his  father  and  he  both 


40        EBENEZER  ROCKWOOD   HOAR 

signed  the  call  fora  great  anti-annexation  meeting, 
which  was  held  in  Faneuil  Hall  on  January  29th. 

Early  in  September,  a  call  was  issued  for  a 
meeting  in  Concord  to  "take  into  consideration 
the  encroachments  of  the  Slave  Power  and  to 
recommend  such  action  as  justice  and  patriotism 
shall  dictate  to  resist  those  encroachments,  and 
assist  the  progress  of  events  so  rapidly  tending 
to  that  fearful  consummation  when  slavery  shall 
have  complete  control  over  the  policy  of  the  gov 
ernment  and  the  destinies  of  the  country." 

At  this  meeting  E.  R.  Hoar  was  one  of  the 
"  business  committee "  and  was  made  chairman 
of  a  committee  to  confer  with  the  general  com 
mittee  appointed  by  the  anti-Texas  convention 
held  the  preceding  January  in  Faneuil  Hall,  and, 
with  other  opponents  of  annexation,  to  arrange  for 
meetings  and  in  other  ways  to  organize  an  effi 
cient  resistance  to  the  final  consummation  of  that 
movement. 

The  resolutions  adopted  declared  :  — 

"We  solemnly  announce  our  purpose  to  the 
South,  and  to  the  execution  of  that  purpose  we 
pledge  ourselves  to  the  country  and  before  Heaven, 
that  rejecting  all  compromise,  without  restraint  or 
hesitation,  in  our  private  relations  and  in  our  po 
litical  organizations,  by  our  voices  and  our  votes, 
in  Congress  or  out,  we  will  use  all  practicable 
means  for  the  extinction  of  slavery  on  the  Amer 
ican  Continent." 


LAW  AND   POLITICS  41 

The  Boston  "  Post "  spoke  of  the  meeting  con 
temptuously,  and  from  its  article  the  following 
extract  is  taken. 

"  Wilson  and  Hoar,  Jr.,  did  indeed  defend  their 
milk-and-water  resolution,  which  looked  one  way 
and  rowed  the  other,  but  no  defence  of  Mr.  Win- 
throp  did  they  dare  to  utter  in  that  assemblage  of 
spirits,  black,  white  and  gray." 

This  meeting  was  followed  by  two  others  in 
Concord,  on  October  1  and  October  21,  at  both  of 
which  Hoar  spoke,  but  of  these  speeches  no  record 
seems  to  have  been  preserved,  doubtless  because, 
as  E.  L.  Pierce  tells  us :  — 

"The  Whig  journals  of  Boston,  notably  the 
'Advertiser/  while  assiduous  in  reporting  Whig 
meetings,  ignored  these  popular  protests  against 
this  creation  of  a  slave  state  out  of  foreign  terri 
tory  acquired  for  the  purpose." 

The  tone  of  the  meetings  is,  however,  indicated 
by  the  following  resolution,  which  was  offered  by 
Mr.  Garrison,  and  adopted  unanimously  on  Octo 
ber  21:- 

"Resolved,  that,  should  the  perfidious  and  il 
legal  act  of  Texas  annexation  be  consummated  at 
the  next  session  of  Congress,  it  will  be  the  con 
stitutional  duty  of  the  legislature  of  Massachu 
setts  promptly  to  declare  in  the  name  of  the  peo 
ple  that  such  act  is  null  and  void,  and  can  never 
receive  their  sanction,  be  the  consequences  what 
they  may  " ; 


42        EBENEZER  ROCKWOOD  HOAR 

and  by  the  resolution  reported  by  the  "  business 
committee  "  and  also  adopted  :  — 

"  Resolved,  that  we  will  not,  by  our  votes  or  our 
influence,  help  to  sustain  any  party  or  any  candi 
dates  for  office  who  will  not,  on  all  occasions,  op 
pose  a  manful  resistance  to  the  encroachments  of 
slavery." 

This  movement  culminated  in  a  great  meeting 
held  at  Faneuil  Hall  on  November  4,  1845,  over 
which  Charles  Francis  Adams  presided,  and  which 
was  addressed  by  Palfrey,  Sumner,  Dr.  Channing, 
Phillips,  Emerson  and  others.  This  meeting  ap 
pointed  a  committee  to  further  its  objects,  and  on 
this  Hoar  was  associated  with  Adams,  Sumner, 
Phillips,  Garrison,  Channing,  Whittier  and  others. 
The  protest  was  unsuccessful,  for  Texas  was  ad 
mitted  in  December,  1845,  with  a  slave  consti 
tution;  but  it  was  a  victory  which  was  worse 
for  slavery  than  a  defeat,  since  it  laid  the  foun 
dation  for  the  active  opposition  to  slave-holding 
aggression  which  ended  in  civil  war  and  emanci 
pation. 

The  Anti-Texas  Committee  emphasized  this  re 
sult  in  an  address  written  by  Charles  Francis 
Adams  and  issued  when  the  contest  was  over, 
which  closed  with  the  words,  "The  contest  about 
Texas  has  been  fought  and  lost,  the  Constitution 
trampled  under  foot,  and  the  Spirit  of  Liberty  is 
driven  from  her  natural  home  ;  but  unnumbered 
fields  yet  remain,  each  of  which  should  be  the  sub- 


LAW  AND   POLITICS  43 

ject  of  a  greater  contest  than  the  last,  until  either 
the  institution  of  slavery  shall  be  overthrown,  or 
else  the  Samson  of  the  North,  intoxicated  by  the 
cup  of  worldly  prosperity,  and  enfeebled  by  his 
dalliance  with  the  harlot  .  .  .  shall  ultimately 
perish."  In  issuing  this  address  the  members  of 
the  committee  took  the  vow  of  eternal  hatred  to 
slavery,  which,  like  Hannibal's  oath  against  Rome, 
was  to  bear  fruit  in  blood. 

Hoar  was  a  candidate  for  the  State  Senate  at 
the  autumn  election  of  1845,  but  failing  to  receive 
a  majority  of  the  votes  cast,  which  was  then  neces 
sary  to  elect,  he  was  chosen  by  the  Legislature 
in  joint  convention.  He  was  an  active  and  influen 
tial  member  of  the  Senate,  and  in  one  speech 
made  an  enduring  contribution  to  the  history  of 
the  time.  Towards  the  close  of  the  session  Henry 
Wilson  introduced  resolutions  against  the  annex 
ation  of  Texas,  and  urging  opposition  to  slave- 
holding  aggression.  These  were  vigorously  opposed 
in  the  interest  of  the  cotton  manufacturers,  one 
of  whom  said  that  Massachusetts  must  submit. 
Hoar  replied  with  vigor  and  said  among  other 
things  :  "  It  is  as  much  the  duty  of  Massachusetts 
to  pass  resolutions  in  favor  of  the  rights  of  men 
as  in  the  interests  of  cotton."  It  is  said  that  dur 
ing  the  debate  he  was  taunted  with  being  a  "  Con 
science  Whig,"  to  which  he  replied  that  he  would 
rather  be  a  Conscience  Whig  than  a  Cotton  Whig. 
However  this  may  be,  it  is  certain  that  from  what 


44        EBENEZER  ROCKWOOD   HOAR 

he  said  at  this  time  came  the  names  "Cotton 
Whigs  "  and  "  Conscience  Whigs  "  thereafter  used 
to  designate  the  two  factors  into  which  the  Whig 
party  was  divided  by  the  annexation  and  admis 
sion  of  Texas. 

The  unjustifiable  course  of  President  Folk's  ad 
ministration  in  forcing  war  upon  Mexico  imme 
diately  after  the  admission  of  Texas  gave  rise  to 
the  next  struggle  between  the  two  wings  of  the 
party,  and  served  to  widen  the  breach.  A  bill 
providing  men  and  money  to  prosecute  the  war, 
with  a  preamble  reciting  that  the  "  war  existed 
by  the  act  of  Mexico,"  was  passed  in  the  House 
of  Representatives  in  May,  1846,  but  under  the 
lead  of  John  Quincy  Adams  all  the  Massachusetts 
members  except  Mr.  Winthrop  and  one  other  voted 
against  it.  Mr.  Winthrop  was  attacked  sharply  for 
this  vote  by  Mr.  Adams  and  afterward  by  Mr. 
Sumner,  and  the  sentiment  of  Massachusetts  dis 
approved  the  war.  The  difference  was  felt  in  the 
state  convention  of  the  Whig  party,  held  on  Sep 
tember  23,  1846,  where  the  question  was  whether 
the  party  should  or  should  not  take  a  distinctly 
aggressive  position  against  slavery.  Rockwood 
Hoar,  who  was  a  member  of  the  Whig  State  Com 
mittee,  had  the  resolutions  drawn  by  that  commit 
tee  amended,  so  as  to  make  them  more  positive  on 
the  slavery  question,  but  took  no  prominent  part 
in  the  convention.  Indeed,  the  resolution  of  the 
committee  was  in  itself  so  positive  that  he  could 


LAW  AND  POLITICS  45 

hardly  have  deserted  his  associates  on  account 
of  it. 

In  the  autumn  of  this  year  he  was  instrumental 
in  securing  the  nomination  of  Dr.  Palfrey  by  the 
Whigs  as  representative  in  Congress  from  the 
Middlesex  District,  and  in  overcoming  the  latter's 
reluctance  to  serve.  Dr.  Palfrey  wrote  to  him 
declining  the  nomination  at  first,  and  Mr.  Hoar 
replied,  urging  that  it  was  his  duty  to  accept  it, 
closing  his  letter  thus  :  - 

"  We  want  for  representative  at  this  time  a  man 
of  principle,  a  man  of  energy,  a  man  of  courage. 
We  want  a  man  who  entertains  sound  views  upon 
the  great  question  of  the  age,  and  who  has  the 
power  to  express  and  enforce  them  with  ability 
and  effect.  In  short,  my  dear  sir,  we  want  you." 

Dr.  Palfrey  yielded  to  his  argument,  and  failing 
to  receive  a  majority  at  the  general  election,  was 
chosen  by  a  small  majority  at  a  special  election 
held  shortly  afterward.  With  the  election  of  1846 
the  immediate  opportunities  for  political  action 
ceased  for  a  while,  and  in  the  summer  of  1847 
Mr.  Hoar  took  a  vacation,  crossing  the  ocean  for 
the  only  time  in  his  busy  life. 

In  Thomas  Carlyle's  letter  to  his  friend,  Mr. 
Emerson  (May  18,  1847),  he  says  :- 

"  About  a  week  ago  came  your  neighbour  Hoar, 
a  solid,  sensible,  effectual-looking  man,  of  whom 
I  hope  to  see  much  more.  So  soon  as  possible  I 
got  him  under  way  for  Oxford,  where  I  suppose 


46        EBENEZER  ROCKWOOD   HOAR 

he  was  last  week  ;  both  Universities  was  too  much 
for  the  limits  of  his  time,  so  he  preferred  Oxford ; 
and  now,  this  very  day,  I  think,  he  was  to  set  out 
for  the  Continent,  not  to  return  till  the  beginning 
of  July,  when  he  promises  to  call  here  again.  There 
was  something  really  pleasant  to  me  in  this  Mr. 
Hoar  ;  and  I  had  innumerable  things  to  ask  him 
about  Concord,  concerning  which  topic  we  had 
hardly  got  a  word  said  when  our  first  interview 
had  to  end.  I  sincerely  hope  he  will  not  fail  to 
keep  his  time  in  returning." 

In  Mr.  Emerson's  answer,  dated  Concord,  June 
4,  1847,  he  says  :  "It  seems  you  are  not  tired  of 
pale  Americans.  You  have  sent  one  country-sen 
ator  where  he  wanted  to  go,  and  to  the  best  hos 
pitalities,  as  we  learn  directly  from  him." 

Judge  Hoar  told  a  friend  that,  when  he  was  in 
Rome  in  1847,  and  his  party  were  going  to  leave 
next  morning,  one  of  them  at  dinner  said,  "  Well, 
you  haven't  swum  across  the  Tiber  yet,  after  all " ; 
for  the  Judge  had  wished  to  know  just  what  the 
feat  of  Horatius  Codes  was,  and  had  said  he  meant 
to  do  it  if  he  could.  Next  morning  he  arose  at  four, 
and  after  much  difficulty  in  getting  the  porter 
to  unbar  and  unlock  the  doors,  went  out  along 
the  Corso,  through  the  Porto  del  Popolo,  and  down 
to  the  river-bank  above  the  city  where  houses 
were  few,  stripped  and  swam  the  Tiber  (possibly 
ten  rods  wide),  but  found  the  current  strong,  and 
was  swept  down  so  as  to  make  a  long  diagonal, 


LAW  AND   POLITICS  47 

much  more  than  he  had  calculated  on.  He  then 
walked  far  up  the  bank,  and  swam  back  to  as  near 
his  clothes  as  possible  without  exhaustion,  and  at 
breakfast  was  able  to  say  to  the  company,  "  If  I 
had  n't  swum  the  Tiber,  as  you  said,  last  night, 
I  have  now  swum  it  twice." 

To  his  son  Samuel  his  father  said  that  an 
Englishman  stood  on  the  bank,  and  wrote  home 
that  the  American  did  this  to  show  that  what 
tired  Caesar  was  not  so  much  of  a  feat  after  all. 
At  which  remark  Judge  Hoar  was  indignant. 

His  holiday  in  Europe  was  pleasant,  but  short. 
His  active  mind  stored  many  impressions  of  the 
past,  but  he  returned  to  America  and  threw  his 
manhood  into  the  present,  the  struggle  for  right 
against  temporary  gain.  Richard  H.  Dana,  his 
valiant  companion  in  this  cause,  said  of  that  pe 
riod,  "  The  spindles  and  day-books  are  against  us 
just  now,  for  Free-Soilism  goes  to  the  wrong  side 
of  the  ledger."  Soon  after  his  return,  on  the 
meeting  of  Congress,  Dr.  Palfrey  justified  Mr. 
Hoar's  opinion  of  his  courage  by  voting  against 
Mr.  Winthrop,  the  Whig  candidate  for  Speaker  of 
the  House,  an  act  which  exposed  him  to  the 
fiercest  criticism,  satirized  by  Lowell  in  the  "  Re 
marks  of  Increase  D.  OThace,  Esquire,"  one  of 
the  Biglow  Papers.  The  Conscience  Whigs,  as  a 
rule,  approved  Palfrey's  course. 

The  following  letter  from  his  stanch  supporter, 
Mr.  Hoar,  written  on  December  17,  1847,  shows 


48        EBENEZER  ROCKWOOD   HOAR 

how  he  regarded  the  matter,  and  something  of 
public  opinion  as  seen  by  a  keen  observer. 

"  You  must  feel  some  desire  to  know  how  your 
votes  have  impressed  the  people  of  No.  4,  and  if 
you  have  not  already  heard  in  full  from  other 
friends,  perhaps  I  can  add  something.  Some  of 
our  loudest  talking  politicians  are  furious  in  their 
denunciation,  follow  the  pattern  of  the  'Atlas '  - 
and  talk  about  treachery,  meetings  to  request  you 
to  resign  —  and  all  that.  None  of  these  men  did 
anything  to  promote  your  nomination  or  secure 
your  election,  unless  the  giving  a  reluctant  and 
complaining  vote  might  come  under  the  latter, 
and  half  of  them  have  not  even  that  sin  to  repent 
of.  I  don't  care  for  them  a  whit,  for  we  have  had 
to  encounter  an  undercurrent  of  their  adverse  in 
fluence  for  some  time,  and  I  prefer  it  above  board. 

"  Next  is  a  class  who  are  led  in  their  opinions  by 
the  '  Atlas/  and  by  these  same  talking  politicians, 
and  who  scold  in  concert,  merely  because  scolding 
is  the  great  staple  of  all  the  noise  that  comes  to 
their  ears  at  present,  and  who  would  go  with  us, 
if  we  turn  out  the  strongest,  with  equal  hearti 
ness,  by-and-by.  Then  there  is  a  large  class  com 
prising  some  of  our  most  reliable  and  generally 
well-disposed  Whigs,  who  feel  great  grief  and  can 
hardly  be  comforted.  They  had  hoped  things  would 
have  gone  along  smoothly.  They  disliked  Slavery 
and  the  War,  but  they  loved  the  Whig  party ; 
and  they  fondly  trusted  that  opposition  to  those 


LAW  AND   POLITICS  49 

and  devotion  to  this  might  somehow  rub  along 
together.  They  say  you  ought  to  have  yielded  a 
little,  and  not  be  quite  so  impracticable  ;  say  that 
it  will  make  difficulty,  that  we  shall  not  be  able  to 
elect  you  again,  nor  any  Whig,  because  of  the 
division  this  will  make  in  the  party.  These  to 
gether  make  up  most  of  the  talking  public,  but  on 
the  other  hand  there  are  not  a  few,  and  among 
them  some  that  the  Whig  party  in  the  4th  would 
sorely  miss,  who  say  they  have  no  idea  of  having 
you  sacrificed  to  State  Street  fury  —  that  if  there 
is  a  meeting  to  be  called,  they  should  like  to  at 
tend  it,  and  that  it  might  turn  out  differently 
from  the  callers'  purpose ;  who  think  that  you 
were  sent  to  Congress  for  many  purposes  quite  as 
important  as  supporting  Mr.  Winthrop,  and  intend 
to  wait  for  other  questions  to  decide  upon  your 
character  as  a  public  man.  There  are  some,  too, 
who  like  your  independence,  and  I  suspect  among 
the  bulk  of  the  people,  this  feeling  prevails  as 
much  as  any. 

"  I  will  add  my  own  opinion  briefly.  I  think  I 
should  have  voted  for  Mr.  Winthrop,  with  my 
view  of  the  risk  attending  a  different  vote,  though 
I  should  not  have  supported  him  in  caucus ;  but 
I  respect  the  principle  which  induced  you  to  do 
otherwise,  and  fully  sympathize  with  the  effort 
which  it  must  have  cost  you  to  do  what  appeared 
to  you  right  on  the  occasion,  and  about  which  you 
are  very  likely  more  correct  in  your  judgment 


50        EBENEZER  ROCKWOOD   HOAR 

than  I  am.  You  will  perhaps  consider  it  little 
praise  when  I  add,  what  I  have  said  many  times 
since  your  vote,  that  I  would  much  rather  be  re 
presented  by  Mr.  Palfrey  than  by  Mr.  Winthrop, 
and  that  if  the  latter  had  as  few  political  sins  or 
errors  to  answer  for  as  you  have,  he  would  stand 
much  higher  in  my  esteem  than  he  does  at  pre 
sent." 

The  year  1848  was  an  exciting  time,  especially 
for  the  Whigs  of  Massachusetts,  and  from  the 
beginning  Hoar  was  a  leader.  He  was  the  man  to 
present  the  cause  of  right  with  aggressive  courage, 
logically,  and  with  what  Sumner  always  lacked,  — 
a  saving  sense  of  humor.  Governor  Claflin,  recall 
ing  him  "  in  the  stirring  times  of  '48,"  said  :  — 

"  He  was  the  idol  of  the  young  men,  who  early 
realized  his  surprising  ability.  No  one  did  more  to 
give  tone  to  Free-Soilers.  His  unselfishness  made 
his  counsel  much  sought  in  the  formation  of  a 
new  party.  Legal  questions  often  came  up,  and  all 
eyes  turned  to  him  as  the  man  to  be  trusted." 

Daniel  Webster,  of  whom  the  state  was  very 
proud,  was  a  candidate  for  the  Presidency,  and 
the  Whigs  of  the  Commonwealth  were  enlisted  in 
his  support.  Till  that  time  he  had  opposed  slavery, 
and  in  this  very  year  he  said  in  the  Senate  :  - 

"  My  opposition  to  the  increase  of  slavery  in 
this  country,  or  to  the  increase  of  slave  represen 
tation  in  Congress,  is  general  and  universal.  It 
has  no  reference  to  lines  of  latitude  or  points  of 


LAW  AND   POLITICS  51 

the  compass.  I  shall  oppose  all  such  extension  and 
all  such  increase  at  all  times,  under  all  circum 
stances,  even  against  all  inducements,  against  all 
combinations,  against  all  compromises." l 

Hoar  admired  and  believed  in  Webster,  as  did 
all  but  the  most  radical  of  the  Conscience  Whigs. 

Charles  Sumner's  letter  to  Dr.  Palfrey,  April 
23,  1848,  throws  some  light  on  the  situation. 

"  There  is  a  movement  at  the  State  House  to 
nominate  Webster.  E.  Rockwood  Hoar  and  Charles 
R.  Train  promote  it.  The  former  invited  me  to 
favor  it.  I  told  him  that  I  could  not  regard  Web 
ster  as  the  representative  of  our  sentiments  ;  that 
he  had  been  totally  remiss  on  slavery  and  the 
war.  It  was  proposed  to  issue  an  address  setting 
forth  the  Wilmot  Proviso  as  the  platform,  and 
showing  significantly  that  Taylor  would  be  op 
posed  in  Massachusetts.  All  these  I  welcomed  ;  at 
the  same  time  I  said  that,  if  Webster  were  pre 
sented  as  a  candidate  on  these  grounds,  our  pre 
sent  policy  would  be  silence  ;  we  could  not  oppose 
him,  nor  join  in  introducing  him  as  a  candidate. 
Hoar  says  that  the  address  and  resolutions  are 
well  drawn  and  satisfactory.  He  has  evidently 
felt  the  fascination  of  Webster's  presence.  Web 
ster  told  him  that  he  would  not  oppose  the  nominee 
of  the  Whig  convention,  but  that  he  would  never 
call  on  the  people  to  support  Taylor,  though  he 
might  be  nominated. "  2 

1  G.  F.  Hoar's  Autobiography,  p.  145. 

3  E.  L.  Pierce's  Memoir  of  Charles  Sumner,  vol.  iii,  p.  164. 


52        EBENEZER  ROCKWOOD   HOAR 

Hoar  threw  himself  into  the  campaign  with 
courage  and  energy.  On  March  29,  at  the  Whig 
convention  in  his  district  called  to  choose  dele 
gates  to  the  National  Convention,  he  offered  a 
resolution  introduced  by  Dr.  Palfrey  at  the  State 
convention  of  the  previous  year,  declaring  that 
"  in  the  opinion  of  this  convention  the  Whigs  of 
Massachusetts  will  not  vote  for  any  person  for 
President  or  Vice-President  who  is  not  known  by 
his  acts  or  declared  opinions  to  be  opposed  to  the 
extension  of  slavery."  At  this  convention  he  was 
a  candidate  for  delegate,  but  was  defeated,  very 
likely  because  of  his  position  as  expressed  in  this 
resolution,  which  was  voted  down  by  the  conven 
tion.  Before  the  Whig  convention  met  at  Phila 
delphia  he  had,  with  a  party  of  young  Whigs, 
called  on  Webster,  and,  in  reply  to  a  speech  from 
him,  Webster  had  said  in  substance  that  he  would 
not  support  Taylor  if  he  were  nominated,  speak 
ing  of  him  as  "a  swearing,  fighting  frontier 
colonel."  As  the  day  fixed  for  the  convention  ap 
proached  it  became  more  and  more  apparent  that 
Taylor  would  be  nominated,  and  Hoar  prepared 
an  address  to  be  issued  at  once  if  this  happened, 
which  was  approved  at  a  meeting  held  on  June  5, 
1848,  by  C.  F.  Adams,  Sumner,  Henry  Wilson, 
S.  C.  Phillips,  F.  W.  Bird,  and  others.  It  was  a 
call  for  a  convention  to  be  held  at  Worcester  in 
Massachusetts  of  all  persons  opposed  to  both  Cass 
and  Taylor.  Taylor  was  nominated  on  June  9,  and 


LAW  AND   POLITICS  53 

on  the  10th  the  address  was  issued,  signed  by 
Samuel  Hoar,  Adams,  Sumner,  E.  R.  Hoar,  and 
many  others.  It  is  quoted  here  as  the  first  piece 
of  Hoar's  political  writing  which  has  been  pre 
served,  and  as  a  vigorous  statement  of  the  posi 
tion  then  held  by  the  anti-slavery  Whigs. 


TO  THE  PEOPLE  OF  MASSACHUSETTS 

The  Whig  National  Convention  have  nominated 
General  Taylor  for  President  of  the  United  States. 
In  so  doing  they  have  exceeded  their  just  author 
ity,  and  have  proposed  a  candidate  whom  no 
Northern  Whig  is  bound  to  support. 

HE  is  NOT  A  WHIG,  when  tried  by  the  standard 
of  our  party  organization.  He  has  never  voted  for 
a  Whig  candidate,  has  declared  that  the  party 
must  not  look  to  him  as  an  exponent  of  its  princi 
ples,  that  he  would  accept  the  nomination  of  the 
Democratic  party,  and  that  he  would  not  submit 
his  claims  to  the  decision  of  the  Whigs,  acting 
through  their  regularly  constituted  convention. 

HE  is  NOT  A  WHIG,  if  judged  by  the  opinions  he 
entertains  upon  questions  of  public  policy.  Upon 
the  great  questions  of  currency  and  finance,  of 
internal  improvements,  of  protection  to  American 
industry,  so  far  from  agreeing  with  the  Whigs,  he 
has  distinctly  avowed  that  he  has  formed  no  opin 
ion  at  all. 

HE  is  NOT  A  WHIG,  if  measured  by  the  higher 


54        EBENEZER   ROCKWOOD   HOAR 

standard  of  principle,  to  which  the  Whigs  of 
Massachusetts  and  of  the  North  have  pledged 
themselves  solemnly,  deliberately,  and  often.  He 
is  not  opposed  to  the  extension  of  slavery  over 
new  territories,  acquired,  and  to  be  acquired  by 
the  United  States.  He  is  a  slave-holder,  and  has 
been  selected  because  he  could  command  votes 
which  no  Whig  from  the  Free  States  could  re 
ceive. 

To  make  room  for  him,  the  trusted  and  faithful 
champions  of  our  cause  have  all  been  set  aside. 

The  Whigs  of  Massachusetts,  by  their  legisla 
ture,  and  in  their  popular  assemblies,  have  re 
solved  that  opposition  to  the  extension  of  slavery 
is  a  fundamental  article  of  their  political  faith. 
They  have  spoken  with  scorn  and  upbraiding  of 
those  Northern  Democrats  who  would  sacrifice 
the  rights  and  the  interests  of  the  Free  States 
upon  the  altar  of  party  subserviency. 

The  Whigs  of  the  legislature  have  recently 
declared  to  the  country  "  that  if  success  can  at 
tend  the  party  only  by  the  sacrifice  of  Whig  prin 
ciples,  or  some  of  them,"  they  do  not  mean  to  be 
thus  successful;  that  they  are  determined  "to 
support  a  candidate  who  will  not  suffer  us  to  be 
overbalanced  by  annexations  of  foreign  territory, 
nor  by  the  further  extension  of  the  institution  of 
slavery,  which  is  equally  repugnant  to  the  feel 
ings,  and  incompatible  with  the  political  rights  of 
the  Free  States  " ;  and  that  they  "  believe  it  to 


LAW  AND  POLITICS  55 

be  the  resolute  purpose  of  the  Whig  people  of 
Massachusetts  to  support  these  sentiments,  and 
carry  into  effect  the  designs  which  they  mani 
fest." 

Believing  that  the  support  of  General  Taylor's 
nomination  is  required  by  no  obligation  of  party 
fidelity,  and  that  to  acquiesce  in  it  would  be  the 
abandonment  of  principles  which  we  hold  most 
dear,  treachery  to  the  cause  of  freedom,  and  the 
utter  prostration  of  the  interests  of  free  labor 
and  the  rights  of  free  men :  - 

The  undersigned,  Whigs  of  Massachusetts,  call 
upon  their  fellow-citizens  throughout  the  Com 
monwealth,  who  are  opposed  to  the  nomination 
of  CASS  and  TAYLOR,  to  meet  in  convention  at 
Worcester,  on  Wednesday,  the  twenty-eighth  day 
of  June  current,  to  take  such  steps  as  the  occasion 
shall  demand,  in  support  of  the  PRINCIPLES  to 
which  they  are  pledged,  and  to  cooperate  with  the 
other  Free  States  in  a  convention  for  this  pur 
pose. 

On  June  28, 1848,  pursuant  to  the  call,  the  Free- 
Soil  convention  assembled  at  Worcester,  and 
among  its  members  were  Samuel  Hoar,  who  pre 
sided  over  it,  Sumner,  Wilson,  Allen,  Dana,  Gar 
rison,  E.  R.  Hoar,  and  many  other  leading  Massa 
chusetts  men.  These  names  stand  to  us  now  for 
all  that  was  best  in  that  stirring  time,  but  some 
of  their  contemporaries  were  not  equally  im- 


56        EBENEZER  ROCKWOOD  HOAR 

pressed,  regarding  these  "Mugwumps"  with  modi 
fied  enthusiasm.  The  Boston  "Courier"  found 
"their  speculations  too  transcendental  for  this 
dusty  and  drab-colored  world."  The  Boston 
"Herald,"  less  politely  and  with  not  entirely  con 
sistent  vituperation,  characterized  them  as  the 
"fag  end  of  a  miserable  fanatical  faction,"  as 
"  political  pharisees,"  "  knaves  as  rotten  and  hol 
low  at  heart  as  they  are  noisy  and  impudent  in 
profession,"  "canting  charlatans,"  "vagabondiz 
ing  imbeciles,"  "drivelling  and  impertinent 
knaves,"  and  later  said  of  their  meeting  in  August 
at  Faneuil  Hall :  "  Satan  never  congregated  such 
a  host  in  Pandemonium  "  ;  while  the  conservative 
"  Advertiser  "  called  the  convention  "  Nothing  but 
an  Abolition  meeting,  drawing  to  itself  malcon 
tents  of  all  classes." 

"For  so  persecuted  they  the  prophets  which 
were  before  you." 

Rockwood  Hoar  took  a  leading  part  in  this  con 
vention  ;  he  was  one  of  a  committee  to  prepare  an 
address  and  resolutions,  one  of  the  committee  to 
nominate  a  state  central  committee,  and  one  of 
the  prominent  speakers.  No  full  publication  of  his 
speech  was  made,  but  it  was  variously  described 
as  "impressively  eloquent"  by  the  Worcester 
"Palladium,"  as  "a  speech  of  great  force  and 
power  "  by  the  "  Whig,"  and  in  "  Warrington's  " 
first  letter  to  the  Springfield  "Republican  "  as  "a 
first-rate  speech." 


LAW  AND  POLITICS  57 

The  Committee  on  Resolutions  had  difficulty  in 
framing  a  statement  in  regard  to  Mr.  Webster, 
whom  the  advanced  Free-Soilers  distrusted,  and  it 
finally  took  this  form  :  - 

"  That  Massachusetts  is  now  looking  to  Daniel 
Webster  to  declare  to  the  Senate  and  to  uphold  be 
fore  the  country  the  policy  of  the  free  states  ;  that 
she  is  relieved  to  know  that  he  has  not  advised 
the  support  of  General  Taylor,  and  that  she  in 
vokes  him  at  this  crisis  to  turn  a  deaf  ear  to  'op 
portunists'  and  'quietists/  and  to  speak  and  act 
as  his  heart  and  great  mind  shall  lead  him." 

On  July  7,  a  ratification  meeting  was  held  in 
Faneuil  Hall,  at  which  Rockwood  Hoar  made  a 
speech  which  is  thus  described  in  the  "  Liberator  " 
of  July  14  :  - 

"E.  R.  Hoar  (son  of  the  venerable  man  who  was 
so  summarily  ejected  from  South  Carolina,  though 
the  accredited  agent  of  this  Commonwealth  in  a 
matter  vitally  affecting  its  sovereignty  and  the  lib 
erty  of  its  citizens)  made  a  speech  at  some  length, 
chiefly  to  prove  that  he  and  those  who  were  act 
ing  with  him  were  true  to  the  Whig  platform  on 
the  subject  of  slavery  ;  that  they  presented  to  the 
country  no  new  issue,  but  were  endeavoring  to 
redeem  old  Whig  pledges  by  a  consistent  course 
of  action;  that  consequently  they  were  neither 
factious  nor  sectional  in  their  spirit  or  object; 
and  declared  that  the  Whig  party  had  falsified  its 
professions  and  promises  and  selected  a  man  for 


58        EBENEZER  ROCKWOOD  HOAR 

the  presidency  who  had  repeatedly  declared  that  he 
would  not  run  as  the  candidate  of  any  party. 

"  So  far  as  the  Whigs  of  the  North  were  con 
cerned,  it  was  very  easy  to  prove  that  they  have 
violated  the  most  solemn  pledges  respecting  the 
extension  of  slavery ;  but  not  so  as  regards  the 
Whigs  of  the  South  who  had  given  no  such 
pledges.  Mr.  Hoar  spoke  in  measured  terms  and 
in  a  professional  style,  as  though  he  were  simply 
making  an  ordinary  plea  at  the  bar,  but  occasion 
ally  he  gave  utterance  to  sentiments  that  were 
warmly  responded  to,  especially  if  they  related  to 
the  non-extension  of  slavery." 

On  the  same  day  he  issued  an  address,  signed  by 
himself  and  six  others,  advocating  the  reelection 
of  Dr.  Palfrey  to  Congress,  in  which,  after  a  few 
remarks  faintly  praising  his  opponent  and  eulogiz 
ing  Dr.  Palfrey  in  comparison,  the  signers  pro 
ceeded,  in  part,  as  follows  :  — 

When  the  Whig  National  convention  nominated 
General  Taylor,  Mr.  Palfrey  could  not,  consist 
ently  with  his  principles  and  former  professions, 
consent  to  acquiesce  in  the  support  of  that 
nomination.  No  reasonable  man  could  have  ex 
pected  that  he  would  do  so ;  and  he  expressed  him 
self  favorably  to  the  political  action  of  those  who 
were  determined  to  make  opposition  to  the  ex 
tension  of  Slavery  not  only  the  paramount  princi 
ple  in  their  party  creed,  but  an  indispensable  re- 


LAW  AND   POLITICS  59 

quisite  in  their  candidates  for  office.  He  was 
assured  on  all  sides  that  his  known  discontent  with 
the  nomination  of  General  Taylor  would  not  pre 
vent  his  receiving  again  the  support  of  the  party 
by  whom  he  had  been  elected  ;  that  if  he  would 
only  be  silent,  refrain  from  taking  any  part  in 
the  presidential  contest,  and  keep  his  opinions  to 
himself,  he  might  be  assured  of  the  nomina 
tion  of  the  Whigs  as  well  as  that  of  the  Free- 
Soil  Party  and  thus  secure  a  triumphant  reelection. 
Such  inducements,  however,  could  not  determine 
his  conduct.  He  would  not  consent  to  stifle  his 
honest  convictions,  or  to  conceal  or  suppress  opin 
ions  which  he  sincerely  entertained  for  the  sake 
of  any  object  of  political  ambition.  There  had  been 
no  change  in  his  political  views  ;  but  he  differed 
with  many  of  his  respected  friends  in  regard  to 
the  course  which  honor,  principle  and  conscience 
required ;  and  he  fearlessly  followed  the  path 
which  to  his  own  best  judgment  seemed  to  be 
straightforward  and  true. 

And  now,  Freemen  of  the  Fourth  District, 
why  should  he  not  be  reflected  to  the  situation 
which  he  so  honorably  fills?  Is  there  any  end  to 
be  gained,  except  the  gratification  of  an  excited 
and  vindictive  party  spirit,  by  setting  him  aside? 
What  right,  what  interest  of  yourselves  will  not  be 
safe  in  his  hands  ?  .  .  .  You  have  sent  him  to  Wash 
ington  as  the  standard-bearer  of  the  principles  of 
Liberty  and  the  rights  of  the  North.  And  firmly, 


60        EBENEZER  ROCKWOOD   HOAR 

steadily,  heroically  he  has  executed  that  sacred 
trust.  He  has  never  hesitated  to  stand  up  for  the 
interest  and  honor  of  Massachusetts,  or  to  make 
his  voice  heard  on  the  side  of  freedom  and  of  man. 
And  now  shall  he  be  struck  down  at  home?  Did 
the  South  ever  desert  one  who  was  thus  faithful  to 
her  cause  ?  And  has  the  North  less  honor  for  her 
champions  ?  What  feelings  do  you  think  it  would 
excite  in  the  minds  of  John  C.  Calhoun  and  Sena 
tor  Foote  to  learn  that  the  man  who  has  done  what 
Palfrey  has  done  could  fail  of  a  reelection  in 
Massachusetts?  Would  they  not  laugh  to  scorn 
your  professions  of  devotion  to  freedom? 

Massachusetts  has  lately  lost  a  man  whom  she 
sent  to  the  national  councils,  not  as  a  partisan, 
but  as  a  statesman  and  patriot.  By  a  fortune 
which  seems  too  appropriate  to  be  called  accident, 
the  seat  on  the  floor  of  Congress  so  long  held  by 
the  venerated  Adams  has  fallen  to  the  lot  of  Pal 
frey.  Is  it  not  well  that  Massachusetts  should  still 
have  a  representative  who  shall  place  questions 
involving  human  liberty  high  above  all  others  in 
his  regard?  And  from  what  district  should  he 
rather  be  sent  than  from  that  which  contains 
within  its  borders  the  earliest  and  most  conse 
crated  battlefields  of  Freedom?  You  can  easily 
find  representatives  who  will  draw  their  salary 
and  attend  punctually  in  their  places;  who  will 
do  whatever  work  their  party  imposes,  and  vote 
regularly  for  such  men  and  such  measures  as  the 


LAW  AND   POLITICS  61 

caucus  shall  have  designated.  But  when  her  peo 
ple  shall  have  shown  that  they  estimate  party 
fidelity  above  devotion  to  principle,  to  truth  and 
to  duty,  the  race  of  fearless,  true  and  independent 
men,  of  such  men  as  John  G.  Palfrey,  will  disap 
pear  from  her  public  councils. 

E.  ROCKWOOD  HOAR 
JOHN  C.  PARK 
JOHN  H.  SHAW 
CHARLES  MASON 
GEORGE  FARRAR 
SULLIVAN  FAY 
ESTES  HOWE 

Hoar  spoke  at  Lowell  on  July  3,  and  at  Groton  on 
July  17,  writing  the  next  day  to  Charles  R.  Train : 
"  I  made  a  pretty  little  speech  to  the  Groton  folks 
last  night.  Stuck  a  pin  there." 

On  July  11,  he  thus  described  the  situation  in 
a  letter  to  Dr.  Palfrey  :  - 

"  I  should  have  long  since  taken  an  opportunity 
to  express  my  thanks  for  ' documents'  received 
from  you,  and  for  various  obligations,  which  I  feel 
in  common  with  many  of  your  constituents,  for 
doings  of  yours  of  a  more  public  nature,  but  for  a 
constant  pressure  upon  my  time,  which  has  left 
hardly  space  for  breathing,  much  less  for  writing. 
Allow  me  to  do  it  now.  You  see  and  hear  that  we 
are  doing  something  to  second  your  efforts — with 
how  much  success  the  future  will  show.  I  do  be 
lieve  the  heart  of  the  people  is  sound  and  true  — 


62        EBENEZER  ROCKWOOD  HOAR 

but  we  have  against  us  wealth,  influence,  the  array 
of  great  political  names,  and  the  whole  power  of 
the  press.  Against  these  we  have  a  cause  that 
will  almost  make  its  own  way,  and  here  and  there 
a  newspaper  and  a  determined  man.  The  harvest 
is  plenteous,  but  the  laborers  are  few.  Still,  I  think 
it  is  already  settled,  that  Taylor  cannot  receive 
the  popular  vote  of  Massachusetts  —  Where  we 
do  make  an  impression,  it  goes  deep.  It  is  not  a 
mere  question  of  success  for  the  time,  though  of 
that  I  am  more  and  more  hopeful  —  but  an  adhe 
sion  to  principle  that  must  ultimately  triumph.  .  .  . 

"  We  are  to  have  a  convention,  to  choose  dele 
gates  to  Buffalo,  at  Concord  on  the  first  day  of 
August.  We  wish  to  have  you  meet  and  address 
your  constituents  at  some  time  soon  after  your  re 
turn.  That  would  be  a  very  favorable  time  and 
place,  if  you  can  get  away  from  Congress  so  soon, 
and  the  announcement  of  your  intended  presence 
would  be  an  additional  attraction  of  great  power. 
Do  you  think  it  would  be  possible  for  you  to 
come?" 

On  August  1,  he  called  to  order  the  convention 
at  Concord  to  which  this  letter  referred,  was  made 
chairman  of  the  district  committee  and  chairman 
of  the  committee  on  resolutions.  He  threw  him 
self  into  the  campaign  in  support  of  the  Free-Soil 
movement  with  great  vigor,  speaking  at  North 
ampton  on  July  26,  at  Charlestown  on  September  5, 
and  in  other  places. 


LAW  AND   POLITICS  63 

He  was  especially  active  in  behalf  of  Dr.  Pal 
frey  as  a  candidate  for  Congress,  and  the  follow 
ing  letter  to  Charles  R.  Train  on  November  10, 
1848,  shows  his  strong  feeling  on  the  subject. 

MY  DEAR  FELLOW,  —  I  meant  to  have  seen  you 
again  before  you  left  Cambridge,  to  say  one 
serious  word  about  politics. 

I  do  not  think  the  Whig  convention  was  under 
any  obligation  to  nominate  Palfrey ;  but  I  think 
the  question  whether  that  convention  should  nom 
inate  him,  and  whether  the  Whig  voters  of  the 
District  should  support  him,  depend  upon  very 
different  considerations,  and  should  receive  a  very 
different  decision.  But  in  particular,  I  think  that 
principle,  and  honor,  and  manliness,  require  of 
you  personally  that  you  should  not  only  vote  for 
him,  which  I  know  you  intend  to  do,  but  that  you 
should  give  him  your  support.  You  can  carry  the 
town  of  Framingham  by  your  influence,  if  you 
choose  to  exert  it.  I  told  Palfrey  last  August  what 
you  and  Nelson  and  I  had  said  about  it.  I  know  you 
can  have  no  doubt  who  our  representative  ought 
to  be,  and  do  for  Heaven's  sake  say  so.  For  your 
own  sake,  don't  put  yourself  in  Nelson's  position. 
I  think  the  disgrace  to  Massachusetts  in  the  eyes 
of  the  country,  should  Palfrey  be  defeated,  would 
be  dreadful. 

I  told  Palfrey  there  were  three  men  in  the  dis 
trict  whom  he  might  rely  on  through  thick  and 


64        EBENEZER  ROCKWOOD   HOAR 

thin.  I  had  their  own  word  for  it  —  and  I  hope 
that  two  of  them,  at  least,  may  redeem  the  pledge. 
One  will,  by  Heaven ! 

Yours, 

E.  ROCKWOOD  HOAR. 

On  November  6,  he  spoke  at  Woburn,  and  some 
idea  of  his  speech  and  of  the  interest  which  the 
voters  then  took  in  public  speaking  may  be  gath 
ered  from  the  entry  made  in  his  diary  by  one  of 
the  audience  :  — 

"  Mr.  E.  R.  Hoar  has  just  concluded  one  of  the 
most  sound  and  convincing  addresses  to  the  citi 
zens  of  this  town  to  which  they  ever  listened.  It  was 
full  of  dignity,  candor  and  truth.  The  withering 
rebuke  he  administered  to  the  maligners  of  J.  G. 
Palfrey  was  enough  to  bring  the  blush  of  shame 
to  the  cheek  of  the  most  degraded  political  harlot. 
The  appeal  to  the  electors  of  the  4th  district  was 
most  patriotic  and  stirring.  For  three  hours  the 
audience  listened,  uttering  at  frequent  intervals 
their  decided  approbation  of  the  sentiments  and 
views  of  the  speaker.  It  was  a  glorious  close  of 
the  speaking  for  the  campaign.  Let  it  be  done  in 
sincerity,  honor  and  conscience,  and  may  the  Lord 
prosper  the  right ! " 

Just  before  the  election  there  was  a  rally  at 
Concord  which  the  Judge  thus  described  in  a  let 
ter:— 

"  The  Court  House  was  filled  to  its  utmost  ca- 


LAW   AND   POLITICS  65 

pacity,  some  hundred  and  fifty  ladies  being  among 
the  audience.  I  presided,  and  introduced  Mr.  Shaw. 
He  spoke  for  about  an  hour ;  then  we  had  a  song, 
and  then  I  spoke  for  about  twenty  minutes  by  way 
of  introducing  Palfrey.  You  know  it  is  a  favourite 
subject,  and  whether  I  made  a  good  speech  or  not 
I  cannot  tell,  but  I  gave  them  my  full  mind  about 
it,  and  I  thought  the  people  would  have  taken  the 
roof  off  the  Court  House.  Mr.  Palfrey  spoke  very 
well  for  near  two  hours,  and  we  broke  up  near  11 
o'clock  with  cheers  innumerable." 

It  is  interesting  to  know  that  in  Concord  old 
men  joined  in  the  revolt  for  principle ;  for  Squire 
Hoar  and  Squire  Brooks  were  both  speaking  in 
other  towns  on  the  night  of  this  meeting. 

The  Free-Soil  party  cast  only  about  38,000  votes 
in  Massachusetts  at  the  election  in  November,  and 
Dr.  Palfrey  failed  of  election.  To  him  on  the  night 
of  the  election  Hoar  wrote  as  follows:  — 

CONCORD,  Nov.  13,  1848. 

MY  DEAR  SIR, — I  wrote  to  you  some  time  ago, 
and  told  you  that  you  had  some  political  friends 
who  would  stand  by  you  to  the  end.  Some  of  them 
have  proved  faithless,  but  my  part  of  the  pledge 
has  been  redeemed  —  so  far  —  to  the  extent  of 
my  power.  I  made  five  speeches  on  the  question 
of  your  election  during  the  last  week,  and  we  gave 
you  to-day  in  Concord  a  larger  vote  than  has  been 
given  this  year  by  any  party  for  any  candidate  for 
any  office. 


66        EBENEZER   ROCKWOOD   HOAR 

The  vote  stood,  Palfrey,  157;  Robinson,  143; 
Thompson,  48;  Van  Buren  had  140,  and  Phillips, 
135. 

We  have  heard  from  no  other  town,  but  if  our 
vote  is  any  criterion,  we  must  have  reversed  the 
plurality  in  the  district  between  Taylor  and  Van 
Buren. 

Our  Taylor  friends  talked  of  electing  Mr. 
Thompson  on  first  trial,  but  I  believe  no  man  can 
be  elected  in  the  district  while  you  live  and  will 
consent  to  run.  Some  who  voted  for  Thompson  to 
day  say  that  they  will  vote  for  you  next  time.  We 
had  one  man  to  vote  for  you  who  has  not  voted 
for  ten  years,  and  came  twenty  miles  on  purpose 
to  do  it.  No  expresses  are  run  for  this  election, 
and  I  thought  you  might  like  to  hear  from  your 
friends  here.  If  there  is  another  trial,  we  will  do 
our  utmost  to  give  you  a  majority  in  Concord  and 
will  carry  the  district  at  any  rate. 

We  are  hoping  for  good  news  to-morrow. 
Very  truly  your  friend, 

E.  ROCKWOOD  HOAR. 

A  new  election  was  ordered,  and  in  anticipation 
Mr.  Hoar  issued  the  following  letter,  which,  though 
printed,  was  marked  "  Private  "  :  — 

November  22,  1848. 

DEAR  SIR,  — The  result  of  the  recent  trial  to 
elect  a  Representative  to  Congress  from  the  4th 
district  has  not  been  officially  ascertained;  but 


LAW  AND   POLITICS  67 

enough  is  known  to  make  it  certain  that  there  has 
been  no  choice  by  the  people,  and  to  render  it  prob 
able  that  Mr.  Thompson  has  received  a  small  plu 
rality  of  votes.  A  new  election  will  doubtless  be 
ordered  by  the  Governor  in  the  course  of  a  few 
weeks. 

The  Free-Soil  District  Committee  wish  to  im 
press  upon  your  attention  the  importance  of  a 
resolute,  concerted,  and  vigorous  effort  to  elect 
John  G.  Palfrey  on  the  next  trial.  There  is  every 
reason  to  believe  that  such  an  effort  would  be  at 
tended  with  complete  success. 

I.  The  whole  vote  cast  will  probably  be  much 
smaller  than  before.  This  is  usually  the  case  at  a 
special,  compared  with  a  general  election.  Many 
of  the  Whigs,  who  voted  the  whole  of  the  regular 
ticket,  will  not  turn  out  when  the  only  object  is  to 
defeat  Mr.  Palfrey.  The  only  purpose  which  could 
be  intended  in  substituting  Mr.  Thompson  for  Mr. 
Palfrey  is  the  gratification  of  an  excited  and  vin 
dictive  party  spirit,  and  the  great  mass  of  the 
party  would  not  be  governed  by  such  a  motive. 
They  know  that  Mr.  Palfrey  has  been  a  faithful 
and  able  representative,  and  that  he  is  an  honest 
and  highminded  man ;  and  they  will  be  satisfied 
with  the  demonstration  already  made,  and  not  at 
tempt  to  prolong  a  useless  contest.  The  Demo 
cratic  party,  so  far  as  it  supported  General  Cass 
and  Mr.  Robinson,  will  not  probably  rally  again  in 
any  considerable  force.  Without  hope  of  success 


68        EBENEZER   ROCKWOOD   HOAR 

for  their  own  candidate,  they  will  make  little  ex 
ertion. 

II.  At  the  late  trial  Mr.  Palfrey  gained  about 
twelve  hundred  votes  compared  with  the  presiden 
tial  election,  and  almost  everywhere  ran  ahead  of 
his  ticket.  This,  it  must  be  remembered,  was  when 
he  was  voted  for  at  the  same  time,  and  in  many 
towns  on  the  same  ticket,  with  the  State  officers. 
It  shows  the  hold  he  has  upon  the  respect  and  af 
fections  of  the  people  ;  and  it  may  be  reasonably 
inferred,  that,  running  alone,  he  will  make  a  much 
greater  comparative  gain. 

III.  There  may  reasonably  be  expected  a  large 
accession  to  our  strength  from  the   Democratic 
party.  They  are  indignant  at  the  defection  of  their 
Southern  allies  in  the  late  contest  —  they  know 
that  Mr.  Palfrey  has  been  an  independent,  fear 
less,  uncompromising  asserter  of  the  rights  of  the 
North,  and  of  the  principles  of  freedom  and  hu 
manity.  They  cannot  expect  to  choose  a  candidate 
of  their  own,  and  numbers  will  join  us  from  a  re 
gard  to  the  personal  qualities  of  the  candidate, 
and  to  the  character  and  honor  of  the  district. 

With  these  views  and  hopes,  we  ask  you  to  see 
that  the  organization  of  the  Free-Soil  party  be 
continued,  and  kept  in  an  as  efficient  state  as  pos 
sible.  Try  to  have  every  voter  brought  to  the  polls 
who  voted  for  Mr.  Palfrey  at  the  last  trial.  The 
same  number  of  votes  cast  for  him  again,  would 
very  likely  ensure  his  election.  But  with  the  same 


LAW  AND  POLITICS  69 

votes  again,  we  shall  doubtless  have  hundreds 
which  were  thrown  against  us  before,  and  which 
will  now  go  with  us.  Endeavor  to  have  the  Town 
Committees  active  and  vigilant.  Bring  out  every 
voter  who  will  support  Palfrey,  of  whatever  politi 
cal  views.  Do  nothing  to  excite  or  arouse  the  feel 
ings  of  the  other  parties,  many  of  whom  would 
see  Mr.  Palfrey  elected  with  satisfaction,  or  at 
least  without  objection,  if  they  are  not  made 
angry. 

We  respectfully  ask  your  personal  cooperation 
in  promoting  this  object. 

In  behalf  of  the  Committee, 

ESTES  HOWE,  Secretary. 

E.  ROCKWOOD  HOAR,  Chairman. 

Of  this  and  the  circumstances  under  which  it 
was  prepared,  he  wrote  to  Dr.  Palfrey  as  follows 
on  December  19,  1848  :  - 

I  should  have  been  glad  to  acknowledge  sooner 
the  receipt  of  your  letters,  for  which  I  felt  greatly 
obliged,  but  I  have  been  sick  ever  since  I  saw  you 
at  Cambridge,  and  for  the  last  two  weeks  confined 
to  my  bed  with  a  bilious  fever.  In  the  midst  of 
it,  however,  I  managed  to  dictate  "  an  address  to 
the  voters  of  the  4th  District "  which  I  have  sent 
to  Dr.  Howe,  and  suppose  will  be  published.  If  it 
is  not  so  good  as  it  ought  to  be,  allowance  must 
be  made  for  the  peculiar  circumstances  of  its  pro 
duction.  I  used  your  "  brief"  to  some  extent,  tak- 


70        EBENEZER  ROCKWOOD   HOAR 

ing  considerable  liberties  with  it,  as  you  will  see 
when  you  get  the  address.  ...  I  do  not  expect 
to  be  able  to  go  out  much,  or  attend  to  business 
during  this  month  (yesterday  being  the  first  day 
that  I  have  left  my  bed),  but  will  try  to  see  that 
all  proper  efforts  are  made  to  bring  out  a  full 
vote. 

It  must  have  been  gratifying  to  you,  and  did 
me  as  much  good  as  any  medicine,  to  find  that  you 
had  the  plurality  by  the  official  return  of  the 
votes. 

Your  suggestion  about  Mr.  Winthrop's  persist 
ence  in  his  course  relative  to  the  appointment  of 
committees,  came  too  late  for  me  to  use.  I  had 
sent  off  the  address,  and  I  do  not  know  that  it 
adds  much  to  the  argument. 

In  the  hope  that  we  may  have  some  good  news 
to  send  you  for  the  new  year,  and  not  having 
strength  to  write  more  now,  I  am 

Very  truly  your  friend, 

E.  ROCKWOOD  HOAR. 

The  new  election  resulted  in  another  failure, 
but  the  young  Free-Soiler  was  no  whit  discouraged, 
as  the  following  letter  shows  :  — 

BOSTON,  January  5,  1849. 

I  feel  mortified  that,  while  your  gain  at  the  late 
election  is  greater  than  in  any  other  district,  you 
should  still  fall  a  few  votes  short  of  an  election. 


LAW  AND  POLITICS  71 

It  makes  me  regret  extremely  that  my  illness 
should  have  prevented  my  doing  all  that  ought  to 
have  been  done  in  my  capacity  as  Chairman  of 
the  District  Committee.  I  am  not  conscious  that 
I  omitted  anything  within  my  power,  but  a  little 
more  effort  would  have  accomplished  the  object. 

As  it  is,  if  the  Governor  orders  another  election 
in  February,  we  will  give  you  500  or  1000  major 
ity  —  if  it  is  put  off  till  March,  the  contest  may 
be  prolonged  —  but  we  shall  make  as  strong  an 
effort  as  we  can  in  either  event.  Mr.  Thompson 
may  as  well  decline  sooner  as  later.  It  is  impossible 
for  him  to  be  chosen  while  you  live  and  will  run. 

I  gave  some  personal  attention  to  Concord,  Lin 
coln,  and  Acton  ;  for  the  other  towns  I  had  to  rely 
upon  others  wholly ;  but  there  is  hardly  a  town 
but  has  done  pretty  well.  .  .  . 

Our  friends  mean  to  spur  up  the  Legislature  to 
as  good  resolutions  as  they  can,  taking  New  York 
for  a  pattern.  The  talk  of  a  plurality  law,  which 
was  quite  common  for  about  a  fortnight  after  the 
November  election,  has  all  passed  by. 

The  result  of  repeated  trials  was  final  defeat, 
and  Mr.  Hoar's  part  in  the  contest  may  be  gath 
ered  from  the  two  following  letters  :  — 

BOSTON,  June  29,  1849. 

DEAR  SIR,  —  I  write  in  great  haste,  being  much 
pressed  for  time,  but  unwilling  to  defer  longer  an 


72        EBENEZER   ROCKWOOD   HOAR 

answer  to  your  letter,  to  say  in  brief,  that  I  do 
not  see  how  you  can  retire  from  the  contest  in  the 
4th  District,  consistently  with  the  safety  of  the 
Free-Soil  Party  there,  or  without  injury  to  your 
own  reputation.  It  would  be  a  great  shock  to  your 
friends,  and  would  occasion  a  gratification  to  our 
common  opponents  which  you  ought  not  to  fur 
nish.  Your  withdrawal  would  be  considered  a  proof 
of  cowardice,  and  a  yielding  and  sinking  under 
the  attacks  made  upon  you. 

To  your  statement  that  you  must  engage  in 
some  business  which  will  afford  an  income,  I  can 
only  say  that  we  have  no  claims  superior  to  those 
of  your  family,  of  course,  but  that  if  you  never 
went  to  Washington  again,  and  engaged  in  pur 
suits,  which  would  make  going  there  out  of  the 
question,  you  ought  still,  in  my  judgment,  to 
allow  yourself  to  stand  as  a  candidate  until  you 
are  chosen.  Then  you  can  act  with  freedom.  I 
have  seen  nothing  to  shake  my  conviction  that 
you  must  be  ultimately  chosen,  and  probaUy  at 
the  next  trial. 

Very  truly  yours, 

E.  ROCKWOOD  HOAR. 

CONCORD,  May  27,  1851. 

MY  DEAR  SIR,  —  I  cannot  forbear  expressing 
to  you  my  grief  and  disappointment  at  the  dis 
astrous  result  of  our  election  yesterday.  No  polit 
ical  event  has  ever  given  me  such  unmingled  pain 


LAW  AND   POLITICS  73 

and  sorrow.  Out  of  Cambridge  and  Charlestown 
everything  went  well,  and  you  have  received  more 
votes  than  were  ever  before  given  to  any  candi 
date  in  the  district.  There  has  been  no  faltering 
or  wavering,  or  omission  of  any  practicable  and 
honorable  exertions  on  the  part  of  your  support 
ers  —  and  I  cannot  see  that  we  have  anything  to 
reproach  ourselves  with.  The  simple  truth  is,  that 
the  number  of  the  Boston  gentlemen  who  sleep  in 
the  district,  and  the  malignity  of  the  ancient 
Democracy,  have  been  too  much  for  us. 

There  would  have  been  no  gratification  of  a 
public  nature  so  dear  to  my  heart,  as  to  have  been 
able  to-day  to  congratulate  your  friends  and  the 
Commonwealth  upon  your  election.  It  is  a  private 
consolation  to  feel  that  in  defeat  you  retain  the 
affectionate  sympathy,  the  thorough  confidence, 
and  the  admiration  of  your  political  associates, 
and  that  you  have  commanded  the  respect,  if  you 
could  not  win  the  support  of  your  opponents. 

I  arn,  Sir,  with  grateful  and  constant  regard, 
your  friend, 

E.  R.  HOAR. 

During  the  year  1848  Mrs.  Hoar  was  obliged  to 
leave  Concord  on  account  of  her  health  and  to 
reside  for  some  time  in  a  sanitarium  at  Flatbush 
near  New  York.  Her  husband's  letters  to  her  dur 
ing  this  period  throw  some  light  upon  the  life  of 
the  active  young  lawyer  and  politician.  His  first 


74        EBENEZER  ROCKWOOD   HOAR 

letter  after  leaving  her  was  written  on  October  8, 
and  from  it  come  the  following  extracts  :  - 

"On  Monday  I  went  to  Lowell  in  a  driving 
storm,  but  encased  in  Mrs.  Cornell's  Rockaway 
wagon,  which  has  a  glass  to  close  it  wholly  in 
front,  and  leather  at  the  sides,  making  it  very 
comfortable.  ...  I  returned  home  the  same  even 
ing,  and  on  Tuesday  went  to  Boston  and  stayed 
till  the  last  train  in  the  evening.  Wednesday  was 
cattle-show.  Dr.  Palfrey  did  not  come,  and  Mr. 
Gray  brought  no  one  with  him.  We  had  a  nice 
day,  however,  and  a  good  dinner,  with  the  usual 
amount  of  wit  and  good  toasts.  On  Thursday  the 
Free-Soil  Convention  —  a  fine  dinner,  four  gentle 
men  as  guests  —  Dr.  Palfrey  nominated  as  our 
candidate  for  Congress.  The  Taylor  men  on  Tues 
day  nominated  Benjamin  Thompson  in  the  place 
of  Palfrey.  .  .  .  Thursday  night  General  Wilson 
spent  with  us,  and  it  was  made  hideous  by  the 
yells  of  rowdies  preparing  for  the  next  day,  when 
we  had  a  muster  and  the  usual  quantity  of  rum 
and  noise.  I  spent  it  at  Boston,  and  in  the  evening 
went  to  Harvard  to  deliver  a  Free-soil  speech,  - 
and  had  a  grand  houseful.  Yesterday  morning  I 
went  down  to  Boston  from  Harvard,  and  up  to 
Lowell,  and  home  by  the  evening  train,  and  stayed 
at  the  office  till  about  midnight.  To-day  (my  first 
Sunday  for  three  weeks),  I  went  to  Church.  .  .  . 
Sammy,  having  no  Mama  to  impose  upon,  has 
tried  his  hand  on  me,  with  more  success,  I  am 


LAW  AND  POLITICS  75 

ashamed  to  own,  than  I  should  have  expected.  .  .  . 
We  are  to  break  up  to-morrow.  ...  I  go  in  the 
special  train  to  Boston,  to  stay  most  of  the  week 
at  the  Miller  trial." 

On  October  29,  1848,  he  wrote  :  - 

"  In  the  words  of  Dr.  Watts,  *  Another  six  days' 
work  is  done/  and  my  good  day  comes  after  it ; 
with  some  novelty  this  time.  I  did  not  get  through 
my  work  at  Newton,  where  I  have  been  the  last 
two  days,  until  too  late  to  get  home  even  by  the 
special  train,  and  had  to  hire  a  man  to  bring  me 
home  at  half  past  nine  in  the  evening.  I  found  our 
house  locked  up,  the  key  at  Father's.  ...  I  found 
our  hearth  cold,  and  all  sign  of  habitation  gone,  ex 
cept  the  entry  lamp  on  the  post,  which  was  lighted 
and  left  for  me,  and  the  cat  in  the  cellar,  and  the 
kitten  in  the  shed.  I  slept  there,  however,  and 
intend  doing  so  again  to-night,  but  have  break 
fasted  and  dined  to-day  at  Father's.  I  locked  the 
front  door  on  going  to  bed,  and  the  first  sound  I 
heard  afterward  was  a  knocking  at  my  chamber 
door  and  Hannah's  voice  saying, '  Your  father  sent 
me  up  to  tell  you  that  breakfast  was  ready/  — 
'  How  did  you  get  in  ? '  responded  I.  'At  the  back 
window,'  replied  Hannah.  '  Then  you  did  not  fasten 
up  the  house  when  you  left  it,  as  I  told  you  to/ 
was  the  answer.  .  .  .  John  Garrison  is  coming  to 
morrow  if  it  does  not  rain,  to  set  out  some  trees 
and  work  in  the  garden  for  me,  but  the  Supreme 
Court  begins,  and  my  perpetual  absence  with  it. 


76       EBENEZER  ROCKWOOD   HOAR 

The  special  train  will  end  this  week  —  and  then 
my  Boston  life  commences." 

Again  on  November  5  :  — 

"  My  own  health  (which  you  say  I  have  not 
spoken  of)  has  been  a  pretty  fair  average  for  me, 
considering  that  I  have  worked  very  hard.  I  gave 
up  politics  for  a  while,  not  making  a  single  speech 
after  the  6th  of  October  (when  I  went  to  Harvard) 
during  that  month.  Last  Wednesday  evening  we 
had  the  finest  Free-soil  meeting  of  the  season*at 
the  Court  House,  to  hear  and  welcome  Mr.  Pal 
frey.  ...  I  went  last  night  to  Acton  to  make  a 
speech,  and  had  a  big  house  full,  from  all  round 
the  neighborhood.  A  dozen  or  more  went  up  from 
Concord.  I  am  going  to-morrow  night  to  Woburn 
and  on  Thursday  night  to  Cambridge,  —  to  make 
speeches, —  which  will  end  it,  I  hope.  ...  I  am 
working  like  a  beaver." 

On  November  12,  he  wrote  :  — 

"At  Woburn  I  gave  some  three  or  four  hundred 
Free-Soilers  a  speech  three  mortal  hours  long, — 
ending  at  near  eleven  o'clock,  — which  they  stood 
like  heroes,  ladies  and  all;  —  and  the  next  morning 
I  had  to  set  off  by  daylight,  in  order  to  take  the 
morning  train  to  Concord,  so  as  to  be  in  season  to 
vote,  —  and  put  my  letter  into  the  Concord  post- 
office,  which  would  enable  you  to  get  it  on  Thurs 
day.  This  week  has  been  full  of  politics,  save  that 
the  Supreme  Court  has  been  in  session,  since 
Wednesday,  and  I  have  been  busy  there  day-times. 


LAW  AND   POLITICS  77 

I  have  made  five  speeches,  chiefly  on  Mr.  Palfrey 
—  namely,  at  Woburn  on  Monday,  at  Cambridge 
on  Thursday,  at  Charlestown  on  Friday,  and  at 
Lincoln  last  evening,  ending  off  with  one  in  Con 
cord  between  9  and  10  o'clock  in  the  evening.  I 
am  entirely  worn  out  and  glad  the  contest  is  over. 
To-morrow  we  vote,  and  I  hope  good  things  for 
Palfrey,  though  we  cannot  hope  to  elect  him  on 
the  first  trial,  as  Taylor  had  near  1300  more  votes 
than  Van  Buren  in  this  Congressional  District, 
besides  the  Democratic  throwing  some  4500  for 
Cass.  Concord  gave  Cass  147,  Van  Buren  140, 
Taylor  62,  scattering  1.  We  mean  to  improve  that 
to-morrow." 

From  this  last  letter  another  extract  shows  the 
real  tenderness  of  the  Judge  :  - 

"  My  dear  wife,  you  do  not  need  any  assurance 
of  my  love,  but  I  think  of  you  every  time  I  lie 
down,  and  every  time  I  rise  up,  and  whenever  I  see 
our  children ;  and  our  home  is  dreary  without  you. 
I  shall  count  all  the  time  you  are  gone  as  so  much 
taken  from  the  happiness  of  my  life.  I  do  not  miss 
you  so  much  in  all  the  whirl  we  have  been  in  on 
week  days,  but  my  Sundays  have  lost  almost  all 
their  comfort  and  happiness." 

A  slight  flavor  of  domestic  relations  may  be 
gathered  from  this  passage  taken  from  a  letter  of 
February  25,  1849  :  - 

"  Sammy  had  a  prodigious  frolic  with  his  Grand 
father,  '  Mr.  Papa/  at  dark,  and  was  very  much 


78        EBENEZER  ROCKWOOD   HOAR 

excited  and  elated ;  but  when  bed-time  came  had 
become  so  much  tired  that  he  felt  contrary,  and 
on  being  asked  by  Grandpapa  Brooks  to  kiss  him 
and  say  good-night,  said,  'No,  Ba'  shall  kiss  Aunty/ 
and  on  my  telling  him,  '  Sammy,  say  good-night, 
Grandpapa/  turned  his  back  upon  me,  and  re 
marked  with  some  emphasis,  '  Ba9  will  tink  of  it,' 
which  caused  an  acceleration  of  his  thoughts  on 
my  part,  which  brought  out  the  'good-night, 
Grandpapa '  with  a  jerk.  But  he  went  to  bed  at 
last  reconciled  and  amiable." 


CHAPTER   III 

HIS  FIRST  SERVICE  ON  THE  BENCH 

IN  July,  1849,  Governor  Briggs  appointed  Mr. 
Hoar  a  judge  of  the  Court  of  Common  Pleas,  and 
he  took  his  seat  on  the  bench  at  Boston  on  Sep 
tember  11.  If  it  be  asked  why  a  man  so  successful 
at  the  bar  and  so  deeply  interested  in  the  politics 
of  an  exciting  period  was  willing  to  accept  thus 
early  in  life  a  judicial  position  which  necessarily 
withdrew  him  from  activities  that  seemed  so  con 
genial,  the  answer  probably  is  that  his  health 
made  a  quieter  life  attractive.  Judge  Hoar  was 
never  robust,  his  digestion  was  never  strong,  nor 
was  he  ever  fond  of  regular  exercise.  The  con 
finement  and  excitement  of  continual  trials  wore 
upon  his  nerves,  and  he  found  it  difficult  to  ban 
ish  his  cases  from  his  mind,  so  that  his  sleep  was 
disturbed  and  his  general  health  affected.  These 
considerations  doubtless  influenced  his  decision. 

He  sat  upon  the  bench  for  the  next  six  years, 
and  brought  to  the  discharge  of  his  judicial  duties 
the  sound  common  sense,  the  clear  intelligence, 
the  incisive  wit,  and  the  power  of  statement  for 
which  he  was  always  distinguished. 

His  mind  worked  so  much  more  quickly  than 
the  minds  of  most  men  that  he  saw  weak  places 


80        EBENEZER  ROCKWOOD   HOAR 

in  their  armor  of  which  they  were  unconscious, 
and  at  times  he  could  not  resist  the  temptation 
to  point  them  out  with  unerring  accuracy,  not 
always  to  the  satisfaction  of  the  victim.  Many  a 
member  of  the  bar  winced  under  his  shafts,  and 
showed  his  resentment  outside  the  court-room, 
but  all  recognized  in  him  a  strong,  upright  and 
fearless  judge,  at  whose  hands  justice  would  not 
suffer. 

As  the  judge  of  a  trial  court  writes  no  opinions 
which  are  reported,  his  acts  and  sayings  are  pre 
served  only  by  oral  tradition  which  is  apt  to  die 
with  his  contemporaries,  and  but  few  reminiscences 
of  Judge  Hoar's  years  on  the  Common  Pleas  Bench 
have  been  preserved.  Some  anecdotes  are  still  re 
membered,  but  whether  they  narrate  incidents  of 
his  service  in  this  court,  or  of  his  longer  service 
on  the  Supreme  Bench,  is  not  always  clear. 

Two  years  after  his  appointment  the  Fugitive- 
Slave  law  was  passed  by  Congress.  He  shared 
the  shame  and  indignation  felt  by  men  of  honor 
and  humanity  in  the  North.  It  was  a  touchstone, 
and  his  own  wisdom  and  virtue  were  soon  put  to 
proof. 

"  It  was  a  time,"  said  Mr.  Albert  E.  Pillsbury, 
in  his  tribute  to  Judge  Hoar  after  his  death,  "when 
the  slave-power  was  dictating  action  to  the  ex 
ecutive,  law  to  the  legislator,  and  judgment  to  the 
bench.  But  the  ermine  could  not  smother  the  fire 
in  him ;  and  it  very  soon  became  evident  that 


HIS  FIRST  SERVICE  ON  THE  BENCH    81 

while  he  observed  all  the  obligations  of  judicial 
decorum,  there  was  no  power  adequate  to  impose 
any  shackles  on  his  hands  or  seal  upon  his  lips. 
One  of  the  most  striking  and  most  creditable  in 
cidents  of  his  career  occurred  at  the  time  when 
Burns  was  taken  from  Massachusetts  back  to  slav 
ery,  when  Judge  Hoar  charged  the  Grand  Jury 
of  Suffolk  to  strictly  inquire  whether  the  militia  of 
Massachusetts  had  been  unwarrantably  used  in 
aiding  in  the  capture  and  the  return  of  the  fugi 
tive  slave,  and,  if  so,  to  indict  and  bring  to  the  bar 
of  justice  every  man  concerned,  from  the  highest 
official,  civil  or  military,  down  to  the  last  private." 

So  remote  is  that  statute,  that  it  is  well  to  recall 
its  iniquitous  provisions.  It  authorized  the  delivery 
of  a  slave  to  his  master  by  a  commissioner  of  the 
United  States  on  the  issuing  of  a  warrant  in  the 
state  from  which  the  slave  was  alleged  to  have 
fled.  The  alleged  fugitive  was  not  allowed  a  jury 
trial ;  the  claimant  was  not  bound  to  prove  that  he 
was  a  runaway  —  a  simple  affidavit  was  enough. 
Any  harboring  or  aid  given  a  fugitive,  or  refusal 
to  help  in  his  seizure,  was  made  a  crime  with 
heavy  penalties;  while,  as  if  to  insult  the  magis 
trates  before  whom  the  alleged  fugitives  were 
brought,  they  were  allowed  a  larger  fee  if  they 
delivered  them  to  the  claimants  than  if  they  dis 
charged  them. 

In  an  ineffectual  attempt  to  rescue  Anthony 
Burns,  one  of  these  fugitives,  from  the  United 


82        EBENEZER  ROCKWOOD   HOAR 

States  Court  House  in  Boston,  one  of  the  Mar 
shal's  posse,  Batchelder  by  name,  was  killed. 
Judge  Hoar  held  the  next  term  of  criminal  court 
in  Suffolk.  His  charge  to  the  Grand  Jury  was  said 
to  have  been  "  one  of  the  best  statements  of  the 
law  of  riot,  and  of  the  duty  both  of  citizens  and 
of  judicial  tribunals,  in  regard  to  the  laws  which 
they  believed  to  be  unjust  or  wicked,  to  be  found 
in  all  jurisprudence." 

This  charge,  made  on  July  3,  1854,  and  later 
printed,  deserves  preservation.  After  defining  a 
riot  and  the  responsibility  of  those  taking  part  in 
it,  he  proceeded  :  — 

"But  it  may  be  made  to  appear  to  you,  that 
within  a  few  weeks  the  door  of  this  Court  House 
was  forcibly  broken  open,  in  the  night-time,  by  a 
large  number  of  persons,  and  that  in  the  course  of 
the  transaction  in  which  they  were  engaged,  a 
man  lost  his  life ;  and  that  the  purpose  of  those 
engaged  in  that  assembly  was  to  rescue  from  the 
custody  of  the  Marshal  of  the  United  States,  a 
person  placed  in  his  custody  under  a  precept  is 
sued  by  an  officer  of  the  United  States.  If  the 
person  whom  he  held  were  lawfully  in  his  custody, 
an  attempt  by  force  and  violence  to  rescue  him, 
by  three  or  more  persons,  carried  wholly  or  par 
tially  into  execution,  would  undoubtedly  make 
them  rioters ;  and  if,  in  the  course  of  their  riotous 
acts,  any  person  was  by  one  of  them,  acting  in 
pursuance  of  their  unlawful  design,  killed,  each 


HIS  FIRST  SERVICE  ON  THE  BENCH   83 

of  the  persons  who  were  thus  engaged  would  be 
legally  responsible  for  the  death  of  that  man,  al 
though  it  might  not  have  been  in  their  individual 
contemplation  to  take  his  life." 

He  then  laid  down  the  law  as  follows  :  — 
"  It  is  my  duty  to  say  to  you  that  the  law  under 
which  that  prisoner  was  detained,  is  a  law  binding 
upon  the  citizens  of  this  Commonwealth.  It  has 
been  enacted  by  the  National  Legislature,  ap 
proved  by  the  President  of  the  United  States,  and 
held  to  be  a  constitutional  enactment  by  that  tri 
bunal  whose  duty  it  is  to  determine  the  validity 
of  all  laws  under  which  the  inhabitants  of  this 
Commonwealth  are  placed ;  and  whatever  opinions 
we  may  individually  entertain  as  to  the  correct 
ness  of  that  decision,  no  citizen  of  the  Common 
wealth  has  a  legal  right  to  disregard  the  decision 
of  the  Supreme  Court.  It  is  binding  upon  all.  It 
is  the  duty  of  every  inferior  tribunal  to  regard 
what  they  have  decided  henceforth  as  law,  and 
it  is  the  duty  of  all  those  concerned  in  the  ad 
ministration  of  justice,  in  any  and  every  depart 
ment,  so  to  regard  it.  Gentlemen,  any  other  rule, 
any  other  conclusion,  could  lead  to  nothing  but 
anarchy. 

"It  may  be  that  at  some  time  hereafter,  the 
act  of  Congress  known  as  the  Fugitive  -  Slave 
law,  will  be  held  not  to  be  constitutional.  In  the 
meantime,  however,  what  is  the  duty  of  those  of 
us  who  have  to  do  with  it  in  the  administration 


84        EBENEZER  ROCKWOOD   HOAR 

of  public  justice  ?  I  might  here,  gentlemen,  if  it 
were  proper  for  me  to  do  so,  and  I  were  deliver 
ing  an  opinion  in  which  that  question  arose,  give 
you  my  private  view  upon  this  matter.  I  might 
say  to  you  that  the  reasoning  on  which  the  law 
has  been  held  to  be  constitutional,  so  far  as  our 
Supreme  Court  is  concerned,  as  I  understand  the 
decision,  is  placed  on  the  ground  of  authority,  and 
not  of  right.  I  might  say  that,  in  my  view,  re 
garding  it  in  the  best  light  I  have  upon  the  mat 
ter,  that  statute  seems  to  me  to  evince  a  more 
deliberate  and  settled  disregard  of  all  the  prin 
ciples  of  constitutional  liberty  than  any  other 
enactment  which  has  ever  come  under  my  notice. 
You,  gentlemen,  might  each  of  you  entertain  sim 
ilar  private  opinions  upon  this  subject.  But  of 
what  avail  is  it,  and  what  right  have  you  or  I  to 
act  upon  these  opinions  ? 

"  It  could  never  have  been  the  intention  of  the 
f  ramers  of  our  Government,  it  is  not  consistent 
with  the  rules  and  principles  of  our  Government, 
that  a  rule  of  law  should  be  held  one  way  in  New 
York,  another  in  Philadelphia,  and  another  in  Bos 
ton  ;  that  it  should  be  dependent  upon  the  individ 
ual  opinion  of  a  judge  or  juror  called  upon  to 
administer  it. 

"  The  only  safe  rule  of  our  duty  is,  that  when 
the  tribunal  provided  by  the  Constitution  and 
laws  has  decided  upon  the  constitutionality  of  an 
enactment,  all  citizens  are  in  practice  bound  to 


HIS  FIRST  SERVICE  ON  THE  BENCH   85 

regard  it  as  a  question  settled.  With  their  politi 
cal  duties,  with  their  feelings,  we  have  nothing, 
here,  to  do.  Within  these  walls  nothing  of  party 
passion,  of  private  interest  or  feeling  should  come. 

"It  has  been  said  sometimes,  and  in  some 
places,  that  there  are  laws  which  it  is  the  duty 
of  citizens  to  disobey  or  resist.  I  have  no  doubt, 
gentlemen,  and  I  suppose  none  of  you  have  any 
doubt,  that  a  law  may  be  enacted  by  a  republican 
government,  as  well  as  an  order  passed  by  a 
despot,  which  may  be  in  itself  wicked ;  and  if  a 
statute  is  passed  which  any  citizen,  examining 
his  duty  by  the  best  light  which  God  has  given 
him,  and  acting  conscientiously  and  uprightly,  be 
lieves  to  be  wicked,  and  which,  acting  under  the 
law  of  God,  he  thinks  he  ought  to  disobey,  un 
questionably  he  ought  to  disobey  that  statute, 
because  he  ought  to  'obey  God  rather  than  man/ 
I  suppose  that  any  man  who  would  seriously  deny 
that  there  is  anything  higher  than  human  law 
must  ultimately  deny  even  the  existence  of  the 
Most  High. 

"  But,  gentlemen,  it  is  not  a  question  of  private 
conscience,  which  determines  our  duties  in  the 
premises.  A  man  whose  private  conscience  leads 
him  to  disobey  a  law  recognized  by  the  commu 
nity  must  take  the  consequences  of  that  diso 
bedience.  It  is  a  matter  solely  between  him  and 
his  Maker.  He  should  take  good  care  that  he  is  not 
mistaken,  that  his  private  opinion  does  not  result 


86        EBENEZER  ROCKWOOD  HOAR 

from  passion  or  prejudice,  but,  if  he  believes  it  to 
be  his  duty  to  disobey,  he  must  be  prepared  to 
abide  by  the  result;  and  the  laws  as  they  are 
enacted  and  settled  by  the  constituted  authorities 
to  be  constitutional  and  valid,  must  be  enforced, 
although  it  may  be  to  his  grievous  harm.  It  will 
not  do  for  the  public  authorities  to  recognize  his 
private  opinion  as  a  justification  of  his  acts." 

He  then  dealt  with  "the  relation  of  the  military 
power  to  the  civil  authority  of  the  Commonwealth," 
and  from  this  part  of  the  charge  a  few  paragraphs 
may  be  quoted. 

"  But  a  few  weeks  have  gone  by  since  the  citi 
zens  of  Boston  saw  in  their  midst  a  large  body  of 
soldiers  assembled,  the  volunteer  militia  of  Mas 
sachusetts,  engaged,  as  it  has  been  asserted,  in 
preserving  the  peace  of  the  city  and  maintaining 
the  supremacy  of  the  laws,  —  an  honorable  and 
responsible  duty,  whenever  it  is  lawfully  assumed, 
and  faithfully  discharged. 

"  From  what  necessity  or  cause  these  soldiers 
were  assembled ;  under  what  authority  they  acted ; 
whether  their  employment  and  their  conduct  were 
in  conformity  with  the  Constitution  and  laws  of 
the  Commonwealth,' —  and  to  whom  the  responsi 
bility  of  their  acts  attaches,  — are  questions  which 
have  been  publicly  discussed,  and  which  it  is  not 
improbable  that  you  may  be  obliged  to  investi 
gate.  .  .  . 

"  With  the  holiday  soldier,  the  bright  array,  the 


HIS  FIRST  SERVICE  ON  THE  BENCH   87 

martial  music,  and  waving  plumes,  which  most  of 
us  regard  with  complacency,  and  which  afford  such 
delight  to  the  juvenile  spectators,  we  are  all  fa 
miliar  ;  with  the  soldier  as  the  terrible  instrument 
of  the  law,  the  last  resort  of  the  civil  government 
for  the  absolute  enforcement  of  its  authority,  we 
are  happily  unfamiliar. 

"It  is  sometimes  said  that  our  Government 
rests,  at  last,  upon  military  force.  It  rests  upon  no 
such  thing.  It  finds  its  chief  strength  in  the  re 
spect  of  an  intelligent  and  virtuous  people  for  the 
laws  which  they  themselves  have  made  ;  and  its 
ultimate  reliance  is  upon  the  power  of  the  people 
to  execute  their  own  will.  The  military  force 
which  a  free  people  allow  to  exist  among  them,  it 
regards  but  as  a  convenient  instrument. 

"  To  understand  clearly  the  points  involved  in 
this  inquiry,  it  will  be  well  to  recur  a  little  to  first 
principles. 

"The  object  of  a  constitution  of  government 
is,  in  the  preamble  to  the  Constitution  of  Massa 
chusetts,  declared  to  be 

"'That  every  man  may,  at  all  times,  find  his 
security  in  the  laws/ 

"To  this  end  two  things  were  of  the  first  neces 
sity  :  1,  The  maintenance  and  enforcement  of  such 
wholesome  laws  as  should  be  enacted ;  and  2,  The 
protection  of  the  liberty  of  the  citizen  from  the 
encroachments  and  abuse  of  authority  of  those  to 
whom  power  should  be  entrusted." 


88        EBENEZER  ROCKWOOD   HOAR 

After  stating  the  law  fully  he  concluded  as 
follows :  — 

"  If  our  citizen  soldiers,  lawfully  mustered  in 
the  public  service,  have  been  assaulted  or  injured, 
see  to  it  that  the  aggressor,  if  he  can  be  discov 
ered,  shall  not  go  unpunished. 

"  If  it  shall  be  made  to  appear  to  you  that  any 
assault  has  been  committed,  or  violence  done,  or 
forcible  obstruction  of  lawful  business  occasioned, 
by  any  part  of  the  military  force,  'diligently  en 
quire  and  true  presentment  make'  concerning  it. 
Ascertain  under  what  order  or  by  what  authority  it 
was  done.  Trace  it  to  its  source.  Consider  what  is 
its  justification.  Extend  the  full  protection  of  the 
law  to  everything  which  a  liberal  construction  of 
the  law  can  justify  or  excuse.  But  if  you  find  the 
law  has  been  violated,  and  that  there  has  been  an 
invasion  of  private  rights,  or  an  infringement  of 
public  liberty,  do  your  duty  as  you  have  sworn  to 
do  it;  and  'leave  no  man  unpresented,  for  love, 
fear,  favor,  affection,  or  hope  of  reward/ 

"It  may  be  said  that  there  was  a  great  public 
exigency,  an  imminent  danger;  that  riot  and 
bloodshed  were  prevented ;  that  there  has  been 
no  considerable  destruction  of  property,  no  serious 
personal  injury  inflicted,  no  sacrifice  of  life,  and 
that  it  would  be  harsh  and  unwise  to  subject 
to  criminal  responsibility  those  who  have  acted 
with  general  good  intention.  Gentlemen,  this  is  a 
very  superficial  view  of  the  matter.  All  right- 


HIS  FIRST  SERVICE  ON  THE  BENCH   89 

minded  men  are  opposed  to  lawless  violence.  The 
whole  community  cry  out  against  it.  But  when 
law  is  disregarded  by  its  own  guardians  and  sup 
porters,  it  is  'wounded  in  the  house  of  its  friends/ 
and  all  sentiments  of  reverence  for  law  in  the 
public  mind  are  weakened. 

"The  old  Latin  maxim  tells  us  to  oppose  begin 
nings —  Obsta  principiis.  Occasions  where  the 
gravest  consequences  have  not  followed,  and  the 
strongest  passions  are  not  excited,  are  the  best  to 
establish  principles  and  define  duties. 

"And  if  the  facts  which  shall  be  laid  before 
you  require  it,  I  have  no  doubt,  gentlemen,  that 
you  will  be  ready  to  show  to  the  people  of  the 
State  that  laws  are  not  made  for  those  only  who 
crowd  the  gallery  or  fill  the  dock ;  that  whenever 
the  strong  arm  of  power  has  been  raised  without 
justification,  and  any  citizen  has  suffered  in  his 
person  and  property,  the  whole  community  feels 
the  wound ;  and  that  the  justice  which  is  no  re 
specter  of  persons  will  allow  no  military  or  civil 
title  to  give  immunity  to  the  transgressor." 

It  was  Judge  Hoar,  during  his  service  on  this 
bench,  who  established  the  law  of  Massachusetts 
on  the  difficult  questions  how  far  a  juror  should 
yield  to  the  opinion  of  his  associates  in  case  of  a 
disagreement,  and  what  a  judge  may  properly  say 
in  order  to  induce  agreement.  His  statement  to 
the  jury  in  Commonwealth  vs.  Tuey1  was  sustained 

1  8  Gushing,  2-3. 


90        EBENEZER  ROCKWOOD   HOAR 

by  the  Supreme  Court  and  has  been  ever  since  a 
useful  weapon  in  the  hands  of  the  bench,  not  only 
in  Massachusetts  but  elsewhere.  It  was  as  fol 
lows  :  — 

"  The  only  mode  provided  by  our  Constitution 
and  laws  for  deciding  questions  of  fact  in  crim 
inal  cases,  is  by  a  verdict  of  the  jury.  In  a  large 
proportion  of  cases,  and  perhaps,  strictly  speak 
ing,  in  all  cases,  absolute  certainty  cannot  be  at 
tained  or  expected.  Although  the  verdict  to  which 
a  juror  agrees  must  of  course  be  his  own  verdict, 
the  result  of  his  own  convictions,  and  not  a  mere 
acquiescence  in  the  conclusion  of  his  fellows,  yet, 
in  order  to  bring  twelve  minds  to  a  unanimous 
result,  you  must  examine  the  questions  submitted 
to  you  with  candor,  and  with  a  proper  regard  and 
deference  to  the  opinions  of  each  other.  You 
should  consider  that  the  case  must  at  some  time 
be  decided;  that  you  are  selected  in  the  same 
manner,  and  from  the  same  source,  from  which 
any  future  jury  must  be ;  and  there  is  no  reason 
to  suppose  that  the  case  will  ever  be  submitted 
to  twelve  men  more  intelligent,  more  impartial, 
or  more  competent  to  decide  it,  or  that  more  or 
clearer  evidence  will  be  produced  on  the  one  side 
or  the  other.  And  with  this  view,  it  is  your  duty 
to  decide  the  case,  if  you  can  conscientiously  do 
so.  In  order  to  make  a  decision  more  practicable, 
the  law  imposes  the  burden  of  proof  on  one  party 
or  the  other,  in  all  cases.  In  the  present  case,  the 


HIS  FIRST  SERVICE  ON  THE  BENCH  91 

burden  of  proof  is  upon  the  Commonwealth  to  es 
tablish  every  part  of  it,  beyond  a  reasonable  doubt ; 
and  if,  in  any  part  of  it,  you  are  left  in  doubt,  the 
defendant  is  entitled  to  the  benefit  of  the  doubt, 
and  must  be  acquitted.  But,  in  conferring  to 
gether,  you  ought  to  pay  proper  respect  to  each 
others'  opinions  and  listen,  with  a  disposition  to 
be  convinced,  to  each  others'  arguments.  And  on 
the  one  hand,  if  much  the  larger  number  of  your 
panel  are  for  a  conviction,  a  dissenting  juror 
should  consider  whether  a  doubt  in  his  own  mind 
is  a  reasonable  one,  which  makes  no  impression 
upon  the  minds  of  so  many  men,  equally  honest, 
equally  intelligent  with  himself,  and  who  have 
heard  the  same  evidence,  with  the  same  attention, 
with  an  equal  desire  to  arrive  at  the  truth,  and 
under  the  sanction  of  the  same  oath.  And,  on  the 
other  hand,  if  a  majority  are  for  acquittal,  the 
minority  ought  seriously  to  ask  themselves,  whether 
they  may  not  reasonably,  and  ought  not  to  doubt 
the  correctness  of  a  judgment,  which  is  not  con 
curred  in  by  most  of  those  with  whom  they  are 
associated  ;  and  distrust  the  weight  and  sufficiency 
of  that  evidence  which  fails  to  carry  conviction 
to  the  minds  of  their  fellows." 

One  of  his  professional  brothers  said  of  him :  — 

"  Judge  Hoar  took  to  the  bench  the  qualities  which 

marked  him  as  an  advocate,  and,  in  addition,  a  keen 

judicial  instinct.  He  was  not  an  impatient  judge, 

as  some  judges  are  impatient,  but  if  a  man  had  a 


92        EBENEZER  ROCKWOOD   HOAR 

poor  case  he  was  fairly  sure  to  find  out  Judge 
Hoar's  opinion  of  it  early  in  the  trial.  In  charg 
ing  a  jury,  he  had  the  faculty  of  making  the  jury 
understand  the  matter  in  hand,  and  he  never  de 
livered  a  charge  over  the  heads  of  the  men  in  the 
box.  The  same  hard  common  sense  that  he  dis 
played  at  the  bar  he  displayed  in  his  decisions 
from  the  bench." 

His  methods  on  the  bench  may  be  illustrated 
by  a  few  instances.  Judge  E.  H.  Bennett  tells  us 
that  during  one  of  his  first  terms,  a  rich  merchant 
of  New  Bedford  asked  to  be  excused  from  serv 
ice  on  a  jury. 

"  For  what  reason  ?  "  asked  the  Judge.  "  Oh,"  re 
plied  the  merchant,  "  I  have  a  whaling  vessel  fit 
ting  out  at  New  Bedford,  another  just  arrived  in 
Boston,  and  I  have  some  pressing  business  in  Phil 
adelphia,  all  of  which  demand  my  personal  atten 
tion."- -"Very  well,"  answered  the  Judge,  "if 
you  have  so  much  property  as  that,  you  can  well 
afford  to  give  a  few  days'  service  to  the  Common 
wealth.  I  cannot  excuse  you." 

Of  another  drawn  to  serve  on  the  Grand  Jury, 
who  sought  to  be  excused  because  he  was  deaf, 
Judge  Hoar  inquired,  "Are  you  wholly  deaf?  Can 
you  hear  nothing?"  To  which  the  juror  replied, 
"I  am  deaf  in  one  ear."  Whereupon  Judge  Hoar 
said,  "  I  must  require  you  to  serve  ;  the  Grand 
Jury  is  only  expected  to  hear  one  side." 

Judge  Bennett  tells  us  also  that  he  was  once 


HIS  FIRST  SERVICE  ON  THE  BENCH  93 

trying  before  him  "  an  action  for  an  attorney's 
bill,  the  only  defence  to  which  was  that  the  argu 
ment  of  the  plaintiff,  though  successful,  had  not  oc 
cupied  a  long  time  in  court,  and  that  the  charge 
was  excessive.  When  giving  the  case  to  the  jury 
Judge  Hoar  said  :  - 

"Gentlemen,  it  is  for  you  to  consider  whether 
the  length  of  time  during  which  a  person  is 
actually  engaged  in  some  skilled  labor  is  a  satis 
factory  test  of  the  value  of  his  services.  Suppose 
a  man  should  injure  his  leg  and  some  eminent 
surgeon  should  successfully  amputate  it  in  two 
minutes.  What  would  you  think  of  a  refusal  to  pay 
simply  because  of  the  time  the  operation  required, 
the  man  saying,  'Why,  I  could  have  got  another 
fellow  in  our  town  to  have  hacked  away  at  my  leg 
for  two  hours  for  half  the  money/" 

Such  a  charge  was  illuminating. 

Some  passages  from  his  letters  to  his  wife  show 
how  he  regarded  his  life  on  the  bench.  Thus  on 
January  1,  1852,  from  Lawrence  he  writes:  — 

"  I  am  leading  almost  an  idle  life  up  here  — 
not  unreasonably  laborious  at  any  rate.  Some 
of  the  lawyers  are  sick,  some  have  pressing  en 
gagements  elsewhere,  and  from  various  causes  it 
has  been  almost  impossible  to  get  anything  ready 
for  trial.  On  Monday  I  did  not  try  a  case,  and 
adjourned  for  the  day  before  3  o'clock.  On  Tues 
day  I  had  an  hour  from  12  to  1,  and  this  forenoon 


94        EBENEZER  ROCKWOOD  HOAR 

we  were  out  of  employment  by  half  past  11 ;  so 
that,  with  quiet  evenings  and  long  nights'  sleep, 
I  am  having  quite  a  rest  after  the  fatigues  of  the 
autumn  and  early  winter,  and  shall  start  upon 
1852  in  unusually  robust  condition.  There  is  no 
thing,  however,  to  indicate  getting  through  before 
the  15th  to  the  18th  of  January,  and  so,  not  expect 
ing  to  see  you  until  Saturday,  I  thought  I  would 
send  a  letter  to  wish  you  all  'a  happy  new  year/  " 

On  March  15,  1852,  writing  from  Springfield, 
he  speaks  of  certain  alleviations :  — 

"  I  went  last  Thursday  night  to  a  party  at  Mr. 
Benjamin  Day's  —  quite  a  pretty  party,  but  at 
which  I  met  with  this  startling  and  melancholy 
experience.  A  lady  with  whom  I  was  conversing, 
a  widow,  '  fair,  fat,  and  forty/  whom  I  had  met  a 
year  ago  in  Worcester,  where  she  had  been  in  the 
habit  of  visiting,  had  relatives,  and  knew  people 
very  well,  and  where  she  had  seen  and  known 
Frisbie,  asked  me  with  perfect  gravity,  looking  in 
my  face  steadily  and  composedly  all  the  while, 
*  whether  I  had  not  a  son  who  was  a  lawyer  in 
Worcester  ! '  Talk  of  birthdays  after  that !  I  in 
tend  when  I  come  home  to  get  a  bat  and  ball  and 
a  hoop,  to  live  on  milk  and  lettuce  exclusively,  go 
to  bed  at  '  early  candle-light/  and  keep  a  New 
foundland  puppy.  If  Carry  grows  much  taller,  I 
shall  tell  people  that  she  is  a  daughter  of  my  wife 
by  her  first  husband.  ...  I  heard  some  good  Ortho 
dox  preaching  all  day  on  Sunday,  with  some  can- 


HIS  FIRST  SERVICE  ON  THE  BENCH  95 

vas-back  ducks  interposed.  In  the  morning  the 
preacher  gave  us  the  points  of  resemblance  be 
tween  a  righteous  man  and  a  palm  tree,  with  great 
minuteness.  Among  other  items  he  observed  that 
a  palm  tree  bore  from  300  to  400  pounds  of  dates 
every  year,  from  which  we  concluded  that  by 
analogy  every  righteous  man  would  be  entitled  to 
an  income  corresponding  —  say  at  least  £300.  In 
the  afternoon  the  preacher  indulged  in  some  re 
marks  about  sinners,  not  at  all  complimentary  to 
that  large  and  influential  class  in  the  community. 
This  morning  we  rode  back  to  Springfield  with  a 
horse,  the  cars  not  running  in  season  for  the 
court,  and  though  the  distance  was  but  nine 
miles,  we  were  just  two  hours  and  a  half  in  getting 
over  it  through  the  deep  mud.  ...  At  the  lecture 
the  other  night,  the  lecturer  spoke  of  a  certain 
lady  in  Europe,  and  among  other  descriptive  epi 
thets  spoke  of  her  as  '  a  stumpy  woman.'  '  What 
is  a  stumpy  woman  ? '  said  a  lady  who  sat  next  to 
me.  '  One  that  is  fond  of  oratory,  I  presume/  was 
my  reply." 

On  Friday,  August  13,  1852,  he  writes  to  Mrs. 
Hoar :  — 

"  I  have  fallen  upon  a  long-winded,  cool,  and 
easy  generation  of  lawyers,  who  in  military  phrase 
'  sit  down  before '  each  witness,  and  seem  to  intend 
to  reduce  him  to  terms  by  starvation,  if  other 
means  fail.  A  witness  in  a  case  to-day  was  asked 
how  a  certain  examination  was  conducted  at  a 


96        EBENEZER  ROCKWOOD  HOAR 

previous  trial ;  '  well/  said  he,  '  pretty  much  as  it 
has  been  here  this  time  :  they  asked  a  great  many 
very  foolish  questions.9 " 

On  May  2,  1854,  at  Dedham,  he  presents  an 
other  phase,  thus :  — 

"  We  are  at  work  on  the  criminal  business,  all 
civil  cases  being  postponed  till  next  week,  and 
there  is  some  prospect  that  the  criminal  cases  may 
be  finished  by  Thursday,  so  that  I  shall  have  a 
day  or  two  at  the  end  of  the  week.  It  is  not  yet 
certain,  but  it  is  probable." 

On  March  4,  1855,  he  writes  from  Lenox  a 
characteristic  letter :  — 

"  You  perhaps  are  aware  that  I  am  not  in  our 
parlor  —  that  there  are  no  Hunt  russets  on  the 
table  before  me,  that  no  grandfathers  have  come 
to  enjoy  the  company  of  the  children,  and  no  chil 
dren  have  run  to  meet  them,  that  no  wife  sits 
composed  and  gracious  in  this  rocking-chair  (in 
fact  I  am  sitting  in  it  myself) ;  no  coming  foot 
step  in  the  least  resembles  Uncle  George's  or  Dr. 
Bartlett's ;  no  Clara  seduces  me  from  the  strait 
and  narrow  ways  of  emptiness  into  the  broad  road 
to  dyspepsia  and  bile,  with  cups  of  tea  and  ginger 
snaps  ;  and  this  morning  another  Bible  had  to  be 
substituted  for  the  one  so  tenderly  associated  in 
Charley's  mind  with  fish-balls  and  milk-toast.  For 
the  first  time  since  the  1st  of  August  last  I  have 
spent  a  Sunday  away  from  you  and  the  little  ones. 
And  I  have  been  most  thoroughly  and  completely 


HIS  FIRST  SERVICE  ON  THE  BENCH   97 

alone.  All  the  lawyers  went  off  yesterday  after 
noon  —  and  left  me  in  this  great  boarding-house, 
the  only  boarder.  My  solitary  table  was  set  for 
breakfast  at  8  o'clock,  and  for  dinner  and  tea  to 
gether  at  4.  ...  I  have  had  a  comfortable  time, 
and  have  been  pretty  well  since  Thursday.  Yester 
day  morning,  Mr.  Charles  Sedgwick  called  with  a 
horse  and  sleigh  just  after  breakfast,  and  asked 
me  '  to  take  a  little  turn  before  court/  I  went 
with  him,  and  we  rode  off  some  miles,  going  over 
drifts  from  four  to  six  feet  high,  now  and  then 
having  to  throw  ourselves  as  far  as  we  could  on  to 
one  side  of  the  sleigh  to  avoid  upsetting,  and  going 
a  considerable  distance  on  one  runner.  This  went 
on  till  we  found  it  near  the  time  for  court,  and  as 
we  came  to  the  road  which  would  take  us  most 
directly  back,  and  which  he  had  intended  to  take, 
we  found  that  it  was  not  broken  out  —  not  even 
a  single  track  visible,  and  that  the  travel  went 
round  by  a  circuit  of  nearly  two  miles  farther. 
We  must  either  be  late  or  try  to  go  through.  So, 
as  the  snow  did  not  look  very  bad  at  first,  we 
tried  it.  We  got  along  tolerably  well  for  about  a 
quarter  of  a  mile,  and  then  we  came  to  some 
drifts,  or  rather  a  drifted  place  for  fifty  or  sixty 
rods,  about  as  steep  as  the  bank  in  front  of  our 
house,  and  as  Mr.  Sedgwick  said,  '  about  twenty 
feet  deep/  I  should  not  want  to  swear  to  over 
fifteen,  however.  Along  the  side  of  this  we  had 
to  skirt  —  the  crust  on  it  sometimes  hard  enough 


98        EBENEZER  ROCKWOOD  HOAR 

to  bear  the  horse,  sometimes  as  icy  as  a  glacier  — 
and  sometimes  wallowing.  Of  course  riding  was 
out  of  the  question.  We  should  have  gone  heels 
over  head,  horse,  sleigh,  and  all,  down  to  the  bot 
tom  a  dozen  times.  Mr.  Sedgwick  carried  the  horse 
and  I  carried  the  sleigh  —  and  we  luckily  got 
through  —  having  exercise,  and  experience,  and 
fun  enough  to  last  a  good  while.  Poor  Mr.  Sedg- 
wick's  distress  at  such  entertainment  in  the  place 
of  the  nice  little  ride  he  had  intended  was  really 
comical ;  but  it  was  all  the  better.  I  took  tea  and 
spent  the  evening  at  Mr.  Sedgwick's  last  evening, 
with  Miss  Catherine  and  Judge  Bishop  and  his 
wife.  This  morning  I  went  to  the  Orthodox  church, 
the  only  one  in  operation  here,  and  had  a  very 
respectable  sermon,  and  a  genuine  old-fashioned 
country  choir  —  14  men,  from  twenty-five  to  sixty 
years  old,  —  six  feet  high  on  an  average,  —  the 
front  of  the  gallery  being  a  low  open  railing,  and 
they  standing  on  a  step  raised  behind  it,  so  as  to 
bring  their  whole  height  into  view  from  their 
boots  upward — singing  to  the  utmost  of  their 
ability;  ten  young  women,  with  what  sounded 
exactly  like  a  hand-organ,  filling  up  the  measure 
of  their  glory." 

These  letters  give  some  idea  of  a  judge's  life  in 
Massachusetts  during  the  early  fifties. 

Though  withdrawn  from  active  participation  in 
politics,  Judge  Hoar  could  not  lose  his  interest  in 
the  questions  of  the  day.  To  the  coalition  between 


HIS  FIRST  SERVICE  ON  THE  BENCH   99 

the  Free-Soilers  and  the  Democrats  which  carried 
Massachusetts  in  1850,  resulting  in  the  election  of 
George  S.  Boutwell  as  governor  and  Charles  Sum- 
ner  as  senator,  Judge  Hoar  was  opposed.  He  had 
an  invincible  repugnance  to  Democrats. 

In  1852,  when  Dr.  Palfrey  was  considering  the 
question  of  becoming  a  candidate  for  the  govern 
orship,  Judge  Hoar  wrote  him  as  follows  :  - 

WORCESTER,  September  7, 1852. 

MY  DEAR  SIR,  —  I  received  your  letter  of  the 
4th  upon  my  return  home  late  on  Saturday  even 
ing,  and  did  not  reply  yesterday,  only  because  I 
wished  to  consult  some  other  gentlemen,  to  whom 
I  could  speak  in  perfect  confidence,  and  who  would 
know  more  about  the  state  of  political  opinion  than 
I  can  do. 

I  can  say  in  reply,  that  I  know  no  reason  to 
think,  and  do  not  believe,  that  any  person  whom 
the  Free-Soil  party  should  put  in  nomination  for 
governor  would  receive  more  votes  than  you  would. 
You  have  many  warm  personal  friends,  and  many 
more  warmly  attached  admirers  of  your  political 
course.  You  would  receive  votes  that  another  can 
didate  would  not.  On  the  other  hand,  I  presume 
there  are  some  Democrats  who  would  prefer  a 
thoroughgoing  man  of  their  own  persuasion,  and 
some  others  who  admired  the  "  coalition  "  so  much 
more  than  you  originally,  or  I  ever  did,  that  they 
have  felt  indignant  at  your  letter  discouraging 


100      EBENEZER  ROCKWOOD   HOAR 

that  very  efficient  and  now  renowned  measure. 
But  I  think  these  would  more  than  be  balanced  on 
the  popular  vote.  My  father  and  other  friends 
whom  I  have  asked,  are  of  the  same  opinion. 

The  only  question  I  have  is,  whether,  supposing 
that  the  allied  armies  succeed  in  carrying  the  legis 
lature,  and  preventing  a  choice  of  governor  by  the 
people,  and  between  themselves  the  office  of  gov 
ernor  should  be  distributed  to  the  Free-Soilers, 
there  might  not  be  more  difficulty  in  executing 
the  plan  if  you  were  the  candidate,  from  a  suspi 
cion  on  the  Democratic  side  that  you  had  no  great 
admiration  for  the  principles  or  characters  of  some 
of  their  leading  men,  and  would  not  be  likely  in 
your  administration  of  the  office  to  bestow  the  ex 
pected  share  of  "  the  spoils  "  upon  profligate,  mer 
cenary,  dishonest  and  incompetent  party  hacks. 
This  difficulty  I  incline  to  think  exists.  What 
weight  it  should  have,  and  which  way  it  may  ef 
fect  your  decision,  it  is  not  for  me  to  say. 

It  is  partly  from  entertaining  such  a  suspicion, 
and  for  reasons  resting  on  the  same  foundation, 
that,  if  the  Free-Soilers  are  to  have  the  governor 
next  year,  I  should  be  most  highly  gratified  that 
you  should  be  the  man.  I  ought  not  to,  and  do  not 
in  my  present  position  take  any  part  in  political 
movements,  so  that  whatever  I  say  is  in  the  ex 
pression  of  private  friendship. 

I  am,  my  dear  sir,  as  ever,  your  friend  and  firm 
adherent.  E.  R.  HOAR. 


HIS  FIRST  SERVICE  ON  THE  BENCH   101 

When  the  Constitutional  convention  of  1853 
framed  a  new  constitution,  which  was  adopted  in 
the  convention  by  the  votes  of  Free-Soilers  and 
Democrats  against  the  opposition  of  the  Whigs, 
Judge  Hoar  took  part  in  a  movement  to  secure  its 
rejection  by  the  people.  His  position  is  stated  in 
the  following  letter  to  Dr.  Palfrey :  — 

BOSTON,  Oct.  7, 1853. 

MY  DEAR  MR.  PALFREY,  —  I  should  be  very 
sorry  to  incur  even  the  suspicion  of  inattention 
to  a  request  of  yours,  and  am  sure  I  shall  never 
intentionally  deserve  such  an  imputation.  I  have 
not  forgotten  my  promise  made  when  I  last  saw 
you,  and  your  note  reached  me  last  Saturday, 
but  the  truth  is  that  my  time  has  been  so  inces 
santly  occupied  that  I  have  not  had  time  even  to 
write  to  excuse  myself,  and  have  not  been  able 
yet  to  find  or  get  a  sight  of  that  new  constitu 
tion,  which  was  the  condition  precedent  to  my 
agreement  to  note  down  some  suggestions  upon 
its  provisions. 

Under  these  circumstances  I  remain  in  the  same 
situation  as  when  we  parted  at  the  head  of  Somer 
set  Street,  and  my  objections  to  the  constitution 
are  based  upon  the  knowledge  of  its  provisions 
which  I  have  gained  from  the  newspapers,  and 
from  the  address  of  the  convention. 

The  chief  objections  which  have  impressed  my 
mind  are :  — 


102      EBENEZER  ROCKWOOD  HOAR 

I.  That  making  clerks  of  courts  elective  by 
the  people  is  an  inconvenience  and  an  absurdity ; 
that  the  clerks  at  the  State  House  might  as  well 
be  chosen  by  the  people,  or  any  other  officer 
whose  duty  merely  requires  him  to  make  records 
of  the  doings  of  others  under  the  direction  of 
a  superintending  authority;   that  it  is  neither 
desired  nor  desirable ;  and  will  be  practically  a 
nuisance. 

II.  That  making  officers,  in  whose  conduct  the 
people  of  the  whole  Commonwealth  have  so  deep 
an  interest  as  judges  of  police  courts  and  trial 
justices  (especially  the  former),  elective  by  a  local 
constituency,  is  dangerous,  and  only  not  to  be 
called  a  dangerous  experiment,  because,  where  it 
has  been  tried,  it  has  proved  uniformly  mischiev 
ous  and  is  no  longer  an  experiment  —  this  is  aside 
from  the  objection  that  such  a  tenure  and  such  a 
mode  of  appointment  is  not  the  best  for  any  judi 
cial  officers. 

III.  The  plan  of  representation,  on  which  I  can 
say  nothing  new. 

IV.  The  vital  and  decisive  objection  in  my  mind 
to  any  constitution  which  strikes  such  a  blow  at 
the  independence  and  the  ability  of  the  judiciary 
as  the  new  tenure  proposes. 

Upon  this,  I  can  hardly  add  anything  to  what 
you  will  find  in  the  speeches  of  Choate  and  Dana. 

Perhaps  I  should  not  say  as  much  as  Dana  does 
of  the  independence  of  the  judiciary  of  the  people. 


HIS  FIRST  SERVICE  ON  THE  BENCH   103 

The  real  question  is,  in  what  mode  can  the  people 
exercise  their  acknowledged  and  undisputed  power 
of  appointing  and  removing  judges  at  their  pleas 
ure,  so  as  to  secure  for  themselves  the  most  faith 
ful,  able  and  successful  discharge  of  the  duties 
of  the  judicial  office.  The  new  mode  seems  to 
me  to  be  the  worst  in  principle  that  has  been  sug 
gested. 

It  makes  the  judiciary  dependent  upon  the  ex 
ecutive,  it  tends  to  mingle  our  judges  with  political 
schemes  and  contests,  and,  in  my  judgment,  will 
terminate  the  possibility  of  securing  the  services 
upon  the  bench  of  the  first  character  and  capacity 
of  the  bar. 

I  am  still  very  much  engaged,  am  writing  in 
court,  and  cannot  say  more.  I  will  only  add  that 
I  understand  that  a  meeting  is  soon  to  be  called 
of  all  persons  opposed  to  the  new  constitution, 
ivithout  distinction  of  party,  and  that  I  took  the 
liberty  to  suggest  to  a  gentleman  who  spoke  of  it 
your  name,  and  that  of  Mr.  C.  F.  Adams,  and  my 
father's,  from  the  Free-Soilers,  as  persons  that 
might  be  applied  to,  and  to  say  that  I  hoped  our 
friend  Dana,  and  Mr.  S.  C.  Phillips  might  be  of 
the  same  persuasion. 

Very  truly  and  respectfully  yours, 

E.  R.  HOAR. 

Senator  Hoar  states  that  he  joined  with  Dr. 
Palfrey  in  preparing  an  argument  against  the 


104      EBENEZER  ROCKWOOD   HOAR 

constitution,  which  was  published  as  a  pamphlet 
under  Dr.  Palfrey's  name,  and  to  this  Judge  Hoar 
contributed  the  legal  argument  and  Dr.  Palfrey 
the  rest.  The  result  of  this  opposition  helped  to 
defeat  the  constitution,  though  some  of  its  ob 
noxious  provisions  were  subsequently  submitted 
separately  and  adopted  by  the  people. 

Richard  H.  Dana  tells  that  at  the  anniversary  of 
the  "  Story  Association,"  in  1851,  Choate  delivered 
the  oration,  a  defence  of  the  Fugitive-Slave  law 
and  an  attack  on  the  Free-Soilers.  Leading  mem 
bers  of  the  party,  to  whom  Choate  had  told  his  sub 
ject,  stayed  away.  But  the  venerable  Free-Soilers, 
President  Quincy  and  Samuel  Hoar,  were  there  to 
hear  the  "  youthful  enthusiasm  and  inexperience 
of  the  party  "  spoken  of  with  contempt ;  and  so 
were  Rockwood  Hoar  and  Dana.  These  younger 
men  stoutly  stayed  to  the  dinner,  where  General 
Carpenter  of  Rhode  Island  attacked  that  "  miser 
able,  conceited,  fanatical  faction." 

"William  Story  (the  sculptor),  in  returning 
thanks  for  his  father's  memory,  spoke  of  intro 
ducing  a  regard  for  liberty  in  law  and  conscience 
into  legislation.  Judge  Hoar's  toast  was  also  to 
the  point,  about  love  of  liberty,  reverence  for  law, 
and  fear  of  God."  Dana,  too,  alludes  good- 
naturedly  to  the  vituperation,  and  says,  "On  the 
whole,  they  had  the  disgrace  of  making  an  ill- 
mannered  attack,  and  we  rather  had  the  last 
word." 


HIS  FIRST  SERVICE  ON  THE  BENCH   105 

In  April,  1854,  as  one  of  a  Massachusetts  dele 
gation,  the  Judge  visited  Washington  for  the  first 
time,  and  from  his  letter  to  Mrs.  Hoar  written 
there  on  April  16th  the  following  extracts  are 
taken :  - 

"  I  found  at  Willard's,  of  our  Massachusetts 
delegation,  Mr.  Crocker  of  Taunton,  Mr.  Walley 
of  Roxbury,  and  Mr.  Dickinson  of  Amherst  with 
his  wife,  son  and  daughter ;  Mr.  Banks  came  in  on 
Thursday  evening,  and  I  also  found  Mr.  John  C.  B. 
Davis  (formerly  of  Worcester,  now  of  New  York). 
I  called  at  Sumner's  and  left  a  card  on  Thursday 
evening,  and  on  Friday  he  called  to  see  me,  and 
has  been  very  kind  and  serviceable  since.  On  Fri 
day  morning  I  called  on  the  President,  and  sent 
in  my  card  ;  but  finding  that  several  gentlemen 
were  waiting  to  see  him  on  business,  and  receiving 
an  answer  that  he  would  see  me  in  about  half  an 
hour,  I  did  not  think  the  sight  worth  waiting  for, 
and  after  looking  round  the  house,  took  my  leave. 

"I  have  called  on  Mr.  Chase  of  Ohio,  and  had  a 
good  long  talk  with  him — a  fine,  noble-looking 
man  of  very  graceful  and  impressive  manners — 
and  to  be  one  of  the  great  men  of  the  country.  I 
spent  most  of  Friday  evening  with  Governor 
Seward  of  New  York,  one  of  the  men  whose  ac 
quaintance  I  most  wished  to  make  ;  and  yesterday 
forenoon,  Sumner  took  me  to  see  Mr.  Benton,  and 
I  had  an  hour's  good  talk  with  him.  The  particu 
lars  of  all  these  things  I  must  reserve  till  I  get 


106      EBENEZER  ROCKWOOD  HOAR 

home.  I  walked  about  a  mile  with  Gerrit  Smith 
yesterday." 

At  the  Republican  State  convention  held  at 
Worcester  on  September  7,  1854,  Judge  Hoar 
received  forty-eight  votes  on  the  first  ballot  for 
governor.  He  was  still  a  leader  of  the  men  who 
were  soon  to  form  the  Republican  party. 

It  was  during  his  service  on  the  bench  that,  at 
the  Union  celebration  by  Concord  and  the  six  neigh 
boring  towns  of  the  seventy-fifth  anniversary  of 
Concord  Fight,  he  was  chosen  president  of  the  day. 
However  often  in  private  talk  the  Judge  allowed  his 
prejudices  the  luxury  of  a  witty  delivery,  when  he 
was  in  the  chair  on  a  public  occasion,  honor  bound 
him  to  fairness  and  courtesy.  On  this  occasion  he 
gave  due  credit  to  Lexington  and  Acton  with  all 
generosity,  and,  as  the  last  toast,  gave  "  England, 
our  Mother-Country ;  we  have  cause  to  speak  well 
of  our  stock.  The  reason  why  the  Essex  and  Mid 
dlesex  farmers  could  front  the  power  of  England 
was  that  they  had  good  West-of -England  blood  in 
their  veins.  We  had  half  of  England  to  sympathize 
with  us  through  that  war,  and  our  fathers  could 
afford  to  part  with  old  England,  for  they  had  es 
tablished  a  new  England  in  the  West."  Then  he 
bade  the  band  play  "God  save  the  Queen." 


CHAPTER  IV 

THE  ACTIVITIES  OF  MIDDLE  LIFE 

JUDGE  HOAR  resigned  his  seat  on  the  bench  in 
the  summer  of  1855,  and  returned  to  the  practice 
of  his  profession.  Between  the  summer  of  1855 
and  1859  he  was  a  lawyer  in  active  practice,  and 
from  1857  in  partnership  with  Horace  Gray,  who 
was  afterward  Chief  Justice  of  Massachusetts 
and  later  a  justice  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the 
United  States  —  a  partnership  which  was  entirely 
congenial  and  resulted  in  a  friendship  which  en 
dured  to  the  end.  Of  Judge  Hoar's  professional 
work  during  this  period  little  trace  has  been  pre 
served.  A  lawyer's  daily  work  interests  his  clients 
and  his  contemporaries  at  the  bar,  but  its  records 
are  "writ  in  water,"  and  the  most  brilliant  argu 
ments,  the  most  searching  cross-examinations,  the 
most  skilful  fence  in  trials  are  remembered  for  a 
few  days,  but,  like  the  sagest  advice  in  chambers, 
make  no  lasting  impression  on  the  memories  of 
men.  The  dispute  between  two  individuals  is 
settled,  a  slight  ripple  in  the  daily  life  of  the  com 
munity  sinks  into  the  stream,  and  leaves  no  trace 
upon  its  surface.  Luther  Martin  in  his  day  was 
perhaps  the  most  eminent  lawyer  in  the  United 
States.  To-day  few  members  of  the  bar  have  even 


108      EBENEZER  ROCKWOOD  HOAR 

heard  his  name.  It  is  not  surprising,  therefore, 
that  no  considerable  record  remains  of  Judge  Hoar's 
professional  activity  during  this  interval  in  his  ju 
dicial  career. 

These  were  the  palmy  days  of  the  Middlesex 
bar,  which,  to  quote  from  Governor  Greenhalge, 
"  seems  to  have  been  regarded,  and  perhaps  justly, 
as  marked  to  an  uncommon  degree  by  a  spirit  of 
belligerency,  of  contention ;  it  seemed  to  live  al 
ways  in  an  atmosphere  of  disputation.  From  be 
ginning  to  end,  from  the  purchase  of  the  writ  to 
the  levy  of  the  execution,  there  was  no  quarter 
asked  or  given  on  either  side.  The  struggle  was 
rigorous  and  severe,  uncompromising  and  unre 
lenting." 

It  was  of  this  time  doubtless  that  a  contempo 
rary  spoke  when  he  said  that  Judge  Hoar  and 
General  Butler  "  divided  the  leading  practice  of 
Middlesex  largely  between  them.  They  were  prob 
ably  opposed  to  each  other  in  hundreds  of  cases, 
but  Judge  Hoar  was  victorious  in  every  single 
case  with  the  exception  of  a  criminal  case  in  the 
United  States  Court  of  Suffolk,  in  which  Butler  was 
associated  with  the  United  States  Attorney  in  a 
prosecution  for  violation  of  the  revenue  laws, 
which  was  ended  by  a  compromise  judgment  for 
the  Government  not  unfavorable  to  the  Judge's 
client."  In  later  years  it  came  to  pass  that  these 
men  met  in  many  conflicts  of  greater  importance. 

To  this  period  belongs  doubtless  this  story. 


THE  ACTIVITIES  OF  MIDDLE  LIFE     109 

During  a  closing  argument  for  the  defence,  But 
ler  stated  with  great  emphasis  to  the  jury,  "  We 
have  the  highest  authority  for  saying, '  Everything 
which  a  man  hath  will  he  give  for  his  life.' ' 
Judge  Hoar,  in  replying  for  the  plaintiff,  said,  "It 
has  for  a  long  time  been  suspected  by  those  who 
have  watched  Mr.  Butler's  career  that  he  has  re 
cognized  as  the  highest  authority  the  individual 
upon  whom  he  now  relies.  For,  gentlemen,  as  you 
well  know,  the  statement  which  he  quotes  from 
the  Book  of  Job  was  made  by  Satan." 

Of  his  political  activity  there  is  more  to  be  said. 
Between  1852  and  1855  the  rise  of  the  American, 
or  Know-Nothing  party,  with  its  anti-Catholic  and 
anti-alien  propaganda,  for  a  while  diverted  public 
attention  from  the  anti-slavery  contest,  and  those 
who,  like  Adams  and  Hoar,  did  not  sympathize 
with  the  Know-Nothings,  were  left  without  a 
party.  This  condition  was  necessarily  transitory. 
The  repeal  of  the  Missouri  Compromise  in  1854, 
followed  by  the  attempt  to  establish  slavery  in 
the  territories  of  Kansas  and  Nebraska  which  had 
been  consecrated  to  freedom,  united  the  free  states 
against  the  aggression  of  slavery,  and  the  contest 
began  again  only  to  end  at  Appomattox. 

Judge  Hoar's  resignation  from  the  bench  came 
just  as  the  Republican  party  was  organized  in 
Massachusetts.  A  meeting  held  at  Chapman  Hall 
in  Boston  on  August  16,  1855,  over  which  Samuel 
Hoar  presided,  resulted  in  the  call  for  a  state  con- 


110      EBENEZER  ROCKWOOD   HOAR 

vention  to  be  held  at  Worcester  on  September  20, 
and  this  call  bears  the  signature  of  E.  R.  Hoar. 
The  convention,  composed  of  1007  delegates  repre 
senting  232  towns,  was  very  successful.  On  the 
first  ballot  for  governor  Judge  Hoar  received  45 
votes,  but  Julius  Rockwell  was  nominated,  and 
Judge  Hoar  was  nominated  by  a  unanimous  vote 
for  Attorney-General  on  motion  of  Richard  H. 
Dana,  only  to  be  defeated  at  the  polls.  From  his 
letter  accepting  the  nomination  the  following  ex 
tract  is  taken,  since  it  states  his  position  on  the 
question  of  the  day :  — 

"  Whatever  may  be  my  personal  wishes,  I  do  not 
feel  at  liberty  to  decline  the  nomination  which 
you  communicate,  nor  by  word  or  act  to  leave 
room  for  the  slightest  suggestion  of  a  doubt  of 
my  cordial  approval  of  the  principles  contained  in 
the  address  and  resolutions  of  the  convention  at 
Worcester,  or  of  my  entire  sympathy  with  the 
Republican  party  of  the  Union. 

"  Since  the  day  when  a  combination  of  Southern 
rapacity  and  Northern  treachery  took  from  us  our 
share  of  the  Missouri  Compromise,  the  conviction 
has  forced  itself  upon  the  minds  of  the  people 
of  Massachusetts  that  the  institution  of  negro 
slavery  is  advancing  with  rapid  strides  to  estab 
lish  itself  as  the  leading  interest  and  dominant 
power  of  the  country  ;  and  that  its  advocates  and 
supporters  are  striving,  already  with  too  much 
success,  to  enable  it  not  only  to  control  the  policy, 


THE  ACTIVITIES  OF  MIDDLE  LIFE     111 

to  fill  the  offices,  to  occupy  the  territories,  and 
wield  the  authority  of  the  federal  union,  but  to 
disturb  the  peace,  corrupt  the  morals,  and  invade 
the  personal  rights  and  liberties  of  the  citizens 
of  the  free  states.  The  necessity  of  immediate, 
united,  and  efficient  resistance  to  these  aggressions, 
unless  we  intend  to  submit  to  them,  is  too  plain  for 
argument. 

"With  the  exception  of  the  supporters  of  the 
present  national  administration,  and  perhaps  the 
further  exception  of  that  small  number  of  timid 
and  feeble-minded  persons  who  really  believe  there 
is  danger  of  a  dissolution  of  the  Union  whenever 
there  is  an  exhibition  of  courage  or  manliness  on 
the  part  of  Northern  men,  the  purpose  to  make 
this  resistance,  in  some  form,  is  avowed  by  every 
one.  The  strength  and  sincerity  of  the  purpose 
must  soon  be  brought  to  a  practical  test.  The 
presidential  election  is  at  hand,  and  we  have  soon 
to  consider  in  what  way  the  power  of  the  adminis 
tration,  which  is  responsible  alike  for  the  repeal 
of  the  Missouri  Compromise  and  for  the  outrages 
in  Kansas,  can  be  successfully  encountered.  In  my 
judgment,  regarding  the  question  of  the  extension 
of  slavery  as  the  '  paramount  issue '  in  our  public 
affairs,  and  the  aggressions  of  the  slave  interest  the 
overshadowing  danger  of  the  Republic,  our  only 
hope  is  in  a  party  having  opposition  to  that  ex 
tension  and  resistance  to  these  aggressions,  by  all 
constitutional  means  and  within  legal  limits,  as  its 


112      EBENEZER  ROCKWOOD  HOAR 

leading  object.  Such  a  party  is  the  Republican 
party  of  the  United  States,  already  formed  and 
victorious  in  several  of  the  states  of  the  Union, 
and  which  the  action  of  the  convention  at  Worces 
ter  inaugurated  so  hopefully  in  Massachusetts. 

"  Two  objections  are  chiefly  urged  against  it : 
that  it  is  based  upon  a  single  issue,  and  that  it  is 
sectional. 

"Of  the  former  it  is  perhaps  enough  to  say, 
that  political  objects  are  usually  to  be  attained 
only  by  political  organizations.  Parties  can  only 
be  formed  by  the  union  of  a  sufficient  number  of 
men,  who  consent  to  waive  for  the  time,  or  to  pur 
sue  by  other  methods,  the  objects  upon  which  they 
differ,  in  order  to  secure  those  upon  which  they 
agree.  To  form  an  efficient  and  strong  party,  there 
must  be  some  great  leading  principle  or  idea, 
around  which  all  others  arrange  themselves.  If 
there  are  other  subordinate  questions  which  you 
think  important,  consider  that  you  lose  nothing 
after  all ;  that  if  you  are  strong  enough  to  carry 
them  alone,  you  would,  of  course,  have  the  same 
or  a  greater  proportionate  strength  in  your  new 
relation ;  and  if  your  views  are  sound,  there  would 
be  a  much  greater  likelihood  of  impressing  them 
upon  your  associates  and  allies,  with  whom  you  are 
connected  by  ties  of  confidence  and  good-will  in  a 
common  cause,  than  upon  the  members  of  hostile 
organizations. 

"  That  the  Republican  party  is  sectional,  in  any 


THE  ACTIVITIES  OF  MIDDLE  LIFE    113 

obnoxious  sense  of  that  term,  we  may  safely  deny. 
In  the  first  place,  there  is  no  danger  that  any 
party  which  can  show  itself  strong  enough  to  carry 
the  North,  will  not  be  able  to  secure  a  reasonable 
and  sufficient  quantity  of  Southern  support.  The 
fact  that  men  in  the  free  states  can  be  found  who 
support  the  present  administration,  is  enough  to 
demonstrate  that  no  party  need  fear  about  being 
national,  while  it  has  any  prospect  of  success.  But, 
more  seriously,  our  objects  are  such  as  affect  the 
whole  national  policy  of  the  government,  and  our 
action  is  upon  strictly  national  issues. 

"There  are  many  wise  and  just  men  in  the 
Southern  states  who  have  denounced  the  repeal 
of  the  Missouri  Compromise  as  impolitic  and  dis 
honorable,  and  who  would  unite  with  any  manly 
and  vigorous  effort  to  redress  the  wrong.  And, 
further  than  this,  it  is  difficult  to  see  why  the 
reasoning  which  would  oppose  the  organization  of 
a  party  to  resist  the  encroachments  of  slavery,  be 
cause  it  would  be  sectional  or  geographical,  must 
not,  to  be  consistent,  oppose  all  party  action  on  the 
subject.  It  is  obviously  only  a  difference  in  mode 
and  degree,  and  not  in  kind.  If  opposition  to  the 
extension  of  slavery  may  be  one  of  the  principles 
of  your  party,  it  may  certainly  be  made  the  promi 
nent  and  chief  one,  if  its  importance  requires  it. 
So  far  as  you  oppose  slavery  at  all,  so  far  you 
separate  yourself  from  the  cooperation  of  slave 
holders  ! " 


114      EBENEZER  ROCKWOOD   HOAR 

He  was  not  elected,  but  he  took  an  active  part 
in  the  campaign  and  made  several  speeches  of 
which  no  record  seems  to  have  been  preserved. 
During  the  campaign  the  Boston  "Advertiser" 
alluded  to  the  fact  that,  while  he  was  on  the  bench 
of  the  Common  Pleas,  Governor  Gardner  had  made 
him  a  commissioner  under  the  Personal  Liberty 
law  of  Massachusetts,  one  of  the  statutes  then 
enacted  in  the  Northern  states  to  protect  their 
citizens  against  the  Fugitive-Slave  law,  and  upon 
this  founded  some  disparaging  observations.  The 
editorial  drew  from  Judge  Hoar  the  following 
letter  to  the  editor :  — 

39  Court  St.,  BOSTON,  Nov.  1, 1855. 

DEAR  SIR, — I  have  received,  and  thank  you 
for  the  courtesy  of  your  letter,  but  its  reasoning 
fails  to  satisfy  me  that  you  had  any  justification 
for  the  statements  in  the  article  which  you  en 
close. 

The  facts  are  briefly  these  —  Governor  Gardner 
sent  me  a  commission  under  the  Personal  Liberty 
Bill — without  consulting  me,  or  any  previous  inti 
mation  from  any  quarter  that  it  was  coming — by 
mail ;  I  found  it  on  my  table  at  evening,  and  as 
soon  as  I  had  opened  it,  I  turned  to  the  constitu 
tion  of  Massachusetts,  to  be  able  to  quote  it  with 
accuracy,  and  immediately  enclosed  the  commis 
sion  to  the  Secretary  of  State,  stating  that,  under 
the  constitution,  I  could  not  accept  it  without 


THE  ACTIVITIES  OF  MIDDLE  LIFE    115 

resigning  my  office  of  judge.  The  Personal  Liberty 
Bill  I  had  not,  at  that  time,  even  read,  and  if  I 
had,  I  suppose  you  will  agree  with  me  that  it 
would  not  have  been  decent  or  proper  in  a  judicial 
officer  to  volunteer  the  publication  of  an  opinion 
on  the  constitutionality  of  a  statute  which  it  might 
be  his  duty  at  some  time  officially  to  consider. 

My  appointment  was  unconstitutional,  and  that 
was  enough  for  me.  I  held  the  document  in  my 
possession  about  ten  minutes,  and  Mr.  Chapman 
is  at  this  moment  just  as  much  an  "  appointed 
minister"  of  the  act,  as  I  am,  and  rather  more  so. 
I  have  never,  to  my  recollection,  expressed  to  any 
person  my  opinion  of  the  constitutionality  of  the 
act,  in  any  particular,  —  certainly,  I  have  never 
said  any  more  in  favor  of  it  than  I  think  every 
lawyer  in  the  state  would  agree  with. 

Under  these  circumstances,  if  you  think  you  are 
justified  in  stating  to  your  readers  that  I  "was 
doubtless  nominated  solely  with  reference  to  "  my 
"support  of  the  personal  liberty  Act"  I  "  too  being 
one  of  the  commissioners  appointed  under  its  pro 
visions  " ;  and  that  I  am  an  "  appointed  minister" 
of  the  act,  your  notions  of  the  force  of  language, 
and  of  the  right  to  make  statements  about  other 
men,  are  too  different  from  mine  to  make  any  dis 
cussion  between  us  useful. 

The  alternative  which,  so  civilly  in  language, 
but  so  remarkably  as  it  seems  to  me  in  substance, 
you  suggest  of  allowing  you  to  attribute  to  me 


116      EBENEZER  ROCKWOOD  HOAR 

such  opinions  as  you  choose  without  any  grounds 
of  authority,  or  of  furnishing  the  public  with  a 
full  statement  of  what  opinions  I  do  hold,  through 
the  columns  of  the  "  Daily  Advertiser,"  I  must  re 
spectfully  decline. 

Allow  me  to  add,  in  closing,  that  my  object  in 
addressing  you  was  by  no  means  political  —  I  do 
not  like  to  have  my  opinions  on  professional  ques 
tions  stated  by  others  without  authority,  but  if  it 
were  in  your  power  truthfully  to  say  anything 
which  would  prevent  my  election  to  the  office  of 
Attorney-General,  you  would  do  me  a  great  serv 
ice. 

With  all  due  respect 

Your  obedient  servant, 
E.  R.  HOAR. 

At  a  meeting  of  the  Republican  State  Committee 
on  February  14,  1856,  he  was  made  one  of  forty 
delegates  to  attend  an  informal  convention  of 
Republicans  held  at  Pittsburg  on  February  22,  and 
was  the  Massachusetts  member  of  the  committee 
on  resolutions  appointed  by  that  convention. 

This  convention  called  a  national  convention  of 
the  party,  which  assembled  at  Philadelphia  on  June 
17,  1856,  and  was  a  remarkable  body  of  men, 
eminent  for  high  moral  character  and  political 
service.  Judge  Hoar  again  represented  Massa 
chusetts  on  the  committee  appointed  to  prepare 
the  platform,  to  which  he  contributed  among 


THE  ACTIVITIES  OF  MIDDLE  LIFE     117 

other  things  the  epigrammatic  phrase  so  often 
quoted,  "those  twin  relics  of  barbarism,  polygamy 
and  slavery."  He  was  also  one  of  a  committee 
of  ten  to  notify  the  nominees  of  the  convention, 
and  he  called  up  the  resolution  fixing  the  place 
for  the  next  national  convention,  saying,  as  re 
ported  :  — 

"  If  we  are  successful  in  this  election  we  may 
hold  our  next  convention  in  Kentucky  or  Virginia. 
Massachusetts  desires  to  advance  her  column  to 
the  South,  for  ours  is  a  national  party.  The  Demo 
crats  have  called  their  next  convention  to  meet  in 
South  Carolina,  and  if  they  persevere  in  their  pre 
sent  policy  they  will  never  dare  to  show  them 
selves  north  of  that  State." 

On  June  23,  he  was  among  the  principal  speak 
ers  at  a  great  meeting  in  Faneuil  Hall,  called  to 
ratify  the  Republican  nominations,  and  in  his 
speech  predicted  that  Fremont  would  get  100,000 
votes  in  Massachusetts,  a  prophecy  which  was 
more  than  realized.  He  took  an  active  part  in  the 
campaign  of  1856.  It  was  during  the  spring  of 
that  year  that,  in  writing  to  his  cousin  William 
M.  Evarts,  to  congratulate  him  on  his  so-called 
"  Tabernacle  Speech,"  he  said  :  - 

"  What  a  state  of  things  for  Massachusetts  that 
such  a  meeting  as  yours  cannot  be  held  in  Boston ! 
And  in  place  of  it  all  manner  of  little  personal  jeal 
ousies  and  small  malignities,  and  reorganizations 
of  what  they  choose  to  call  the  Whig  Party  —  con- 


118      EBENEZER  ROCKWOOD  HOAR 

found  them  for  bringing  such  disgrace  on  that 
noble  old  name ! " 

In  1857,  he  was  elected  an  Overseer  of  Harvard 
College  by  the  Legislature  of  Massachusetts  and 
held  the  office  till  the  following  year,  when  he  was 
elected  a  member  of  the  Corporation.  He  held  this 
office  till  1868,  when  he  resigned,  and  was  at  once 
elected  an  Overseer  by  the  alumni.  He  was  made 
President  of  the  Board,  an  office  which  he  con 
tinued  to  fill  until  1880,  when  his  term  expired 
and  under  the  law  he  was  ineligible  for  a  year.  He 
was  reflected  in  1881,  and  again  chosen  President, 
serving  until  1887,  when  his  twenty-nine  years  of 
service  in  the  two  governing  boards  of  Harvard 
College  ended.  It  was  very  soon  after  he  became 
an  Overseer  that  he  made  a  very  important  con 
tribution  to  the  settlement  of  the  mooted  question 
as  to  the  relative  powers  of  the  Corporation  and 
the  Board  of  Overseers.  In  a  speech  made  March 
12, 1857,  and  reported  in  the  Boston  "Advertiser" 
of  the  next  day,  he  upheld  the  powers  of  the  latter 
Board,  amplifying  at  some  length  the  propositions 
which  he  stated  thus :  — 

"  There  are  two  classes  of  functions  which  the 
Corporation  discharges.  One  is  the  possession  and 
control  of  the  property  of  the  college  as  property, 
providing  for  its  security,  its  investment,  its  care. 
The  other  is  the  application  of  this  property  to  the 
work  of  the  college,  applying  it  to  the  purpose  for 
which  the  college  was  founded,  the  education  of 


THE  ACTIVITIES  OF  MIDDLE  LIFE    119 

the  youth  of  the  state.  With  the  first  function,  in 
my  judgment,  the  Board  of  Overseers  have  very 
little  to  do  by  the  charter  of  the  college,  unless  in 
the  exercise  of  the  visitational  power  to  guard 
against  its  abuse,  which  does  not  appear  likely  to 
occur,  but  with  which,  for  the  satisfaction  of  this 
community,  the  less  this  Board  interferes  the  bet 
ter  ;  the  other  is  the  application  of  all  the  means 
and  powers  at  the  disposal  of  the  Corporation  to 
the  practical  work  of  educating  youth.  With  that 
it  seems  to  me  to  be  the  intention  of  the  charter 
to  entrust  powers  to  the  Board  of  Overseers  of 
supervision,  of  concurrence,  and  of  action  coex 
tensive  with  the  duties  of  the  Corporation." 

Whenever  this  question  becomes  pressing  this 
argument  will  be  found  most  instructive  and  illu 
minating. 

On  April  12,  1859,  Judge  Hoar  was  appointed 
an  associate  justice  of  the  Supreme  Judicial  Court 
of  Massachusetts  by  Governor  Banks,  and  on 
April  16,  he  took  his  seat  on  that  bench.  He  con 
tinued  to  hold  this  position  until  March,  1869, 
and  for  the  next  ten  years  his  life  was  compara 
tively  uneventful. 

In  this  position  he  displayed  a  clear  and  inci 
sive  mind,  a  competent  knowledge  of  law,  a  thor 
ough  understanding  of  the  people  whose  disputes 
he  was  called  upon  to  decide,  and  above  all  a  rare 
fund  of  "saving  common  sense."  The  combination 
made  him  an  excellent  judge.  His  mind  moved 


120      EBENEZER  ROCKWOOD   HOAR 

rapidly,  and  his  quickness  in  grasping  the  point  of 
a  case,  or  the  essence  of  a  witness's  testimony, 
made  him  sometimes  impatient  of  the  slower  pro 
cesses  by  which  counsel  reached  their  results,  of 
prolix  discussion  and  tedious  cross-examination. 
The  expression  of  this  impatience  sometimes  irri 
tated  counsel,  and  it  was  said  by  one  of  them  that 
the  Judge  was  often  "  unhappy  because  he  could 
not  decide  against  both  parties  to  the  case."  A 
tradition  of  bad  manners  had  been  for  some  time 
associated  with  the  Supreme  Court  of  Massa 
chusetts  when  he  was  appointed  to  that  bench, 
and  suffering  as  he  often  was  from  dyspepsia,  it  is 
not  perhaps  strange  that  he  did  not  redeem  its 
reputation  in  this  respect,  but  his  manner  was 
of  the  surface.  His  essential  kindness  of  heart, 
his  genuine  love  of  justice,  his  high  sense  of  judi 
cial  responsibility,  prevented  his  doing  any  wrong 
to  the  parties,  and  he  was  by  nature  ready  to 
relieve  any  injury  which  a  thoughtless  remark 
might  do  to  another's  feelings. 

His  judgments  are  found  in  twenty-three  vol 
umes  of  the  Massachusetts  Reports  (from  the 
13th  of  Gray  to  the  101st  of  Massachusetts,  both 
inclusive)  and  in  only  one  case  did  he  write  a  dis 
senting  opinion.  He  wrote  many  opinions  which 
did  not  bear  his  name,  but  are  printed  as,  "By 
the  Court,"  and  he  told  Mr.  Justice  Hammond 
that  when  he  had  written  "  Hoar,  J."  at  the  top 
of  a  sheet  of  paper  he  considered  the  opinion  at 


THE  ACTIVITIES  OF  MIDDLE  LIFE     121 

least  half  written.  His  judgments  are  clear  and 
brief.  They  are  not  overloaded  with  authorities, 
nor  are  they  elaborate  discussions  of  principle. 
He  was  content  to  take  the  case  presented  and 
decide  it,  citing  only  a  few  authorities  for  his 
conclusions.  The  distinguishing  characteristics  of 
his  decisions  are  a  firm  grasp  of  essential  princi 
ples  and  strong  good  sense,  than  which  no  quali 
ties  are  more  important  in  a  judge. 

His  successor,  Chief  Justice  Field,  thus  charac 
terized  him :  — 

"  His  published  opinions  while  a  judge  on  our 
Supreme  Court,  where  he  continued  for  nearly 
ten  years,  are  the  best  evidence  of  the  kind  of 
judge  he  was.  Those  opinions,  as  a  rule,  are  not 
long ;  they  begin  directly  with  the  discussion  of 
the  questions  of  law  involved ;  they  are  exceed 
ingly  clear ;  the  analysis  of  the  case  is  perfect ; 
authorities  are  cited  when  necessary,  but  there  is 
no  great  display  of  authorities ;  and  the  opinion 
ends  when  the  argument  ends,  and  there  is  robust 
good  sense  manifest  throughout.  There  is  no  at 
tempt  at  display,  and  very  little  discussion  of  sub 
jects  that  might  be  interesting,  but  are  not  strictly 
necessary  to  the  decision.  ...  I  am  informed 
that  he  rarely  made  more  than  one  draft ;  that 
he  formulated  what  he  had  to  say  in  his  mind  be 
fore  he  wrote  anything,  and  that  he  made  very 
few  changes  in  the  revision.  ...  I  tried  a  few 
cases  before  him,  as  well  when  he  was  sitting  at 


122      EBENEZER  ROCKWOOD   HOAR 

nisi  prius  as  on  the  bench ;  and  it  was  impossi 
ble  not  to  notice  the  quickness  of  his  perceptions, 
the  keenness  of  his  logic,  and  his  dislike  of  any 
conduct  in  a  cause  which  was  not  directly  perti 
nent  to  the  issues  and  did  not  throw  light  upon 
the  trial.  He  had  the  impatience  natural  to  very 
quick  minds  at  the  slow  processes  of  duller  men, 
and  he  especially  disliked  any  indirection,  any  ar 
guments  that  missed  the  point  of  the  case,  and 
any  pretensions  and  affectations  of  thought  or 
feeling  that  were  intended  or  were  likely  to  mis 
lead." 

One  of  his  eminent  professional  brethren  spoke 
thus  of  his  decisions :  "  The  judicial  records  of 
Massachusetts  are  full  of  the  important  cases 
which  he  has  either  conducted  or  decided,  and  no 
small  part  of  that  reputation  which  will  live  for 
many  years  will  be  found  recorded  in  the  judicial 
records  of  our  state." 

Said  another :  "  His  mind  had  a  wonderful  clari 
fying  power,  like  some  chemical  dropped  into 
muddy  and  opaque  waters,  precipitating  every 
thing  that  did  not  belong  in  the  arguments  pre 
sented  to  the  court." 

The  Hon.  Charles  Allen,  himself  for  many  years 
a  distinguished  member  of  the  same  court,  has 
furnished  the  following  reminiscences  :  — 

"  Judge  Hoar  was  in  the  Supreme  Judicial  Court 
all  the  time  that  I  was  reporter.  His  opinions 
came  to  me  written  in  his  own  clear  handwriting 


THE  ACTIVITIES  OF  MIDDLE  LIFE     123 

with  very  few  erasures  or  corrections,  paragraphed, 
punctuated,  capitalized,  so  as  to  need  no  editing 
in  these  particulars.  The  doctrines  intended  to  be 
decided  were  so  stated  as  to  make  the  prepara 
tion  of  the  headnotes  comparatively  easy ;  he  very 
seldom  asked  to  have  an  opinion  returned  for  fur 
ther  revision  by  him,  and  almost  never  cared  to 
see  the  proof-sheets.  He  was  also  prompt  in  the 
disposal  of  cases.  After  the  doctrine  was  settled, 
the  expression  of  it  in  proper  terms  seemed  easy 
to  him.  I  remember  once  he  wrote  an  opinion  in 
the  railway  station  at  Pittsfield  while  we  were 
waiting  for  a  train,  and  gave  it  to  me.  I  would 
not  mention  this,  if  his  opinions  showed  any  lack 
of  due  care,  any  signs  of  haste  in  the  preparation. 
But  they  did  not.  His  intellect  was  like  a  machine 
in  good  order,  and  he  was  able  to  give  full  atten 
tion  to  a  subject  at  once." 

He  adds  that,  while  listening  to  the  arguments 
before  the  full  court,  he  had  the  habit  of  putting 
questions  to  the  counsel  —  questions  sometimes 
hard  to  answer.  "  In  his  last  two  or  three  years 
on  the  bench  he  seldom  did  this." 

Chief  Justice  Field  said:  "No  jury  ever  left 
their  seats  where  he  presided  without  having 
plainly  and  forcibly  presented  to  them  the  exact 
issues  to  be  determined." 

Mr.  Goulding  of  the  Worcester  bar  spoke  of 
him  thus :  — 

"  He  illustrated  in  a  very  remarkable  manner, 


124      EBENEZER  ROCKWOOD   HOAR 

as  it  seems  to  me,  how  immensely  the  individual 
ity  and  personal  genius  of  the  judge  can  add  to 
the  weight  of  his  official  utterances.  The  great 
judgments  which  abide  and  which  become  the 
landmarks  of  the  law  derive  their  chief  impor 
tance,  not  from  their  relation  to  positive  constitu 
tions,  but  from  their  relation  to  universal  reason, 
and  to  the  underlying  verities  and  forces  of  mo 
rality  ;  and  that  relation  it  is  the  business  of  a 
man  to  discover  and  to  state.  In  a  great  cause, 
presented  for  final  adjudication,  the  question  and 
the  man  meet ;  but  the  man  is  much  the  larger 
term  in  the  equation." 

A  striking  testimony  was  that  of  Governor 
Greenhalge :  — 

"  His  judgments  were  independent ;  they  had 
about  them  virility,  freshness  and  power.  There 
was  not  a  drop  of  sluggish  blood  in  his  veins.  The 
shot  fired  at  Concord  emancipated  his  mind  as 
well  as  his  country.  I  say  this  because  even  to 
day,  in  some  judicial  decisions,  can  be  heard  the 
rattle  of  chains.  Intellectual  freedom  and  inde 
pendence  are  of  as  much  value  as  political  inde 
pendence.  He  respected  precedent,  but  he  did  not 
permit  precedent  to  play  the  part  of  tyrant." 

It  was  a  hard-working  court,  as  we  may  gather 
from  his  letters,  for  on  January  23,  1861,  he 
writes,  "We  are  worked  day  and  night  in  the 
court,  and  likely  to  be  for  some  time  yet";  and 
on  April  16,  1863,  "I  have  a  court  to  hold  every 


THE  ACTIVITIES   OF   MIDDLE   LIFE     125 

week  from  next  Monday  to  the  first  week  in 
June."  Again,  November  11,  1868,  "I  held  the 
term  for  trials  eleven  weeks  last  spring." 

Now  that  the  railroads  had  come,  the  Judge 
could  have  an  office  in  Boston  and  keep  his  home 
in  Concord,  though  he  had  to  be  much  in  the 
cars.  In  writing  to  his  brother,  he  speaks  of  the 
"uncertainties  of  life  and  of  Groton  Junction/' 
and  says  that  he  is  having  "  an  interval  of  learned 
leisure  at  home,  i.  e.,  thirteen  opinions  to  write 
before  the  first  of  March." 

His  residence  in  Concord  proved  fortunate  for 
his  neighbor,  Frank  B.  Sanborn.  In  those  years 
the  elements  of  the  strife  between  the  irreconcil 
able  opinions  and  systems  of  life  North  and  South 
were  hotly  smouldering,  and  the  issues  were  grow 
ing  clearer,  when  the  thunderclap  of  the  John 
Brown  raid  startled  North  and  South  alike  and 
precipitated  public  opinion.  Concord  was  involved, 
because  one  of  her  citizens  was  a  friend  of  John 
Brown,  and  might  have  been  cognizant  of  this  at 
tempt.  Judge  Hoar  was  aroused  late  one  evening 
by  the  ringing  of  the  great  bell  of  the  church, 
heard  from  an  excited  messenger  that  the  United 
States  Marshal's  deputies  were  trying  to  carry  off 
Mr.  Sanborn  by  force,  and  that  his  neighbors  were, 
thus  far,  successfully  resisting  his  abduction.  He 
hastily  issued  a  writ  of  habeas  corpus,  which  the 
bailiffs,  surrounded  by  angry  men  and  women  and 
the  pupils  of  Mr.  Sanborn's  school,  had  no  choice 


126      EBENEZER  ROCKWOOD   HOAR 

but  to  respect,  and,  after  some  rough  handling, 
they  withdrew.  Mr.  Sanborn  appeared  next  day  in 
the  Massachusetts  Supreme  Court,  Chief  Justice 
Shaw  and  Justices  Metcalf,  Merrick  and  Hoar 
sitting,  was  represented  by  John  A.  Andrew,  and 
was  discharged.  He  had  very  narrowly  escaped 
being  hurried  secretly  to  Washington,  to  abide 
the  result  of  having  disobeyed  the  summons  of  a 
Senatorial  committee  hunting  for  treason. 

Though  on  the  bench,  Judge  Hoar  did  not,  in 
the  great  crisis  of  his  country's  history,  lose  his 
interest  in  politics.  In  the  autumn  of  1860  he 
went  to  the  State  convention  as  a  delegate  from 
Concord,  and  helped  to  nominate  John  A.  Andrew 
for  governor. 

Lincoln's  election  as  President  blew  the  coals 
of  wrath  into  flames  which  were  bursting  out  in 
every  direction.  Still  the  fatal  necessity  of  war 
was  hardly  accepted  in  the  North,  and  in  the  first 
months  of  1861  there  was  much  talk  of  compro 
mise  and  concession  to  appease  the  imperious 
cotton  states.  Mr.  Evarts  had  been  spoken  of  as 
the  successor  in  the  Senate  of  Seward,  Lincoln's 
new  Secretary  of  State.  In  January,  his  Concord 
kinsman  wrote  to  him  urging  his  acceptance,  and 
said :  — 

"  My  own  judgment  is  made  up  upon  this  state 
of  things.  The  constitution  is  to  be  upheld  and 
maintained,  not  reconstructed.  The  laws  are  to  be 
faithfully  and  fearlessly  administered,  not  modi- 


THE  ACTIVITIES  OF  MIDDLE  LIFE     127 

fied  and  tinkered  to  suit  the  projects  of  conspira 
tors  and  traitors.  Nothing  is  so  certain  of  success, 
or  sure  to  be  popular  in  the  long  run,  as  resolute 
purpose.  Abraham  Lincoln's  silence,  thus  far,  has 
given  me  great  faith  in  him,  and  when  the  time 
comes  for  him  to  speak,  I  trust  we  shall  have  the 
voice  of  the  Republican  Party  on  the  Republican 
platform.  ...  I  keep  my  faith  in  Seward,  though 
I  cannot  make  much  of  his  speech,  except  as  the 
old  lady  said  of  her  minister  whose  sermons  she 
did  not  understand,  '  that  he  has  a  heavenly  tone/ 
...  If  we  ever  come  to  a  righteous  settlement 
with  South  Carolina,  I  should  be  very  sorry  not 
to  be  present  at  it  in  some  capacity." 

April  came,  and  with  its  first  days  the  fall  of 
Fort  Sumter.  All  doubt  was  cleared  away,  the 
flags  went  up.  No  state  was  readier  than  Massa 
chusetts,  no  towns  than  Concord  and  her  daugh 
ter  towns.  The  Judge  had  passed  the  military  age 
by  two  months,  and  was  not  physically  fit  for  cam 
paigning.  But  all  through  the  war  he  served  the 
country,  the  state  and  the  town,  with  his  influence, 
his  labor  and  his  purse.  A  notable  instance  oc 
curred  on  the  anniversary  of  Concord's  great  day, 
when  her  company  was  to  leave  for  the  front. 

On  the  morning  of  the  Nineteenth  of  April, 
1861,  when  the  old  "Concord  Artillery,"  which 
had  been  changed  to  an  infantry  company,  had 
received  orders  to  join  its  regiment  (the  5th  Mas 
sachusetts)  in  Boston  and  go  to  Washington,  then 


128      EBENEZER  ROCKWOOD  HOAR 

in  imminent  danger  of  capture  by  the  rebels,  and 
it  became  known  that  their  good  captain  could 
not  then  go,  for  family  reasons  of  commanding 
importance,  great  disappointment  and  depression 
were  felt  by  the  soldiers.  An  eye-witness  thus 
describes  the  events  of  that  morning :  — 

"  I  was  then  a  schoolboy,  and  when  I  came  down 
town  the  rumor  ran  that  very  likely  the  com 
pany  would  be  broken  up  and  not  go,  but  that 
Judge  Hoar  was  going  to  speak  to  them.  I  went 
up  into  the  Town  Hall  where  they  had  mustered, 
and  saw  them  formed  and  marched  around  the 
hall  by  Lieut.  George  L.  Prescott.1  He  halted 
them  on  the  south  side  of  the  hall,  faced  and 
addressed  them,  and  gave  the  command  '  Order 
Arms ! '  The  men  stood  there,  silent  and  troubled. 

"Judge  Hoar  came  forward,  uncovered,  and 
stood  for  a  moment  looking  steadfastly  at  them 
in  the  middle  of  the  hall.  Then  he  spoke  to  them 
of  their  country,  its  danger,  its  call  to  them,  their 
duty  to  Concord,  the  example  of  their  fathers, — 
his  voice  very  solemn,  but  with  increasing  power 
and  spirit  as  he  went  on. 

"  This  picture,  which  I  saw  from  the  gallery,  is 
fresh  in  my  memory,  but  of  his  words  I  only  re 
member  the  last.  He  reminded  the  men  how  New 
England  had  always  been  a  focus  from  which 

1  A  brave  and  faithful  soldier,  who,  as  Colonel  of  the  32d 
Infantry  M.  V.  M.,  was  killed  in  battle  before  Petersburg,  Va.,  in 
1864. 


THE  ACTIVITIES  OF  MIDDLE  LIFE    129 

knowledge  and  virtue  had  spread  abroad  over  the 
land  ;  how  she  had  always  furnished  teachers  to 
the  West  and  especially  to  the  South ;  how  they 
were  that  day  summoned  to  the  South  to  save  the 
country, '  and  to  teach  there,  and  to  your  children 
in  later  years,  what  we  all  learned  when  we  were  so 
high'  (putting  his  hand  at  the  height  of  a  five-year- 
old  child),  'the  boundaries  of  the  United  States, — 
North  by  the  British  Provinces,  East  by  the  Atlan 
tic  Ocean,  South  by  the  Gulf  of  Mexico!'  and  the 
'  West '  was  drowned  in  the  thunder  of  the  musket- 
butts.  Doubt  and  depression  were  gone.  At  noon 
the  company,  in  their  old-time  Napoleonic  uniform, 
were  arrayed  under  the  flag-staff  cut  that  morning 
in  Walden  Woods,  the  flag  was  run  up,  saluted  by 
the  cannon,  while  the  young  women  sang  the  Star- 
Spangled  Banner.  Mr.  Reynolds  made  a  solemn 
prayer,  and  'mid  cheers  and  tears,  accompanied 
by  all  Concord,  her  soldiers  marched  to  the  train." 
Just  ten  days  later  Governor  Andrew  writes  a 
letter  introducing  Judge  Hoar  to  Hon.  Simon 
Cameron,  Secretary  of  War,  as  "  one  of  our  most 
eminent  men,"  and  says,  "  I  trust  he  may  have  an 
opportunity  for  conference  with  the  Government 
at  Washington,  especially  with  regard  to  our  Mas 
sachusetts  movement,  opinions  and  troops."  Mr. 
John  M.  Forbes  with  prompt  energy  had  secured 
the  vessels  Cambridge  and  Pembroke  for  the  state, 
to  transport  her  troops,  and  later  her  bountiful 
supplies,  and  those  poured  in  by  private  hands. 


130      EBENEZER  ROCKWOOD  HOAR 

Fit  agents  to  distribute  these  were  needed.  Also 
complaints  of  discomfort  and  privation  came  from 
some  regiments.  The  Governor  wished  these 
looked  into  by  men  of  tact  and  force.  He  sent 
such,  in  the  persons  of  Judge  Hoar  and  Dr.  S.  G. 
Howe.  The  former  was  also,  if  possible,  to  induce 
the  Secretary  of  the  Navy  to  take  the  two  trans 
ports  off  the  hands  of  the  state  and  reimburse  it 
for  its  expenses. 

As  the  temporary  agent  of  Massachusetts,  Judge 
Hoar  did  admirably.  Young  Charles  Russell 
Lowell,  later  the  distinguished  cavalry  commander, 
succeeded  Judge  Hoar  in  this  work,  until  he  re 
ceived  his  captaincy ;  and,  writing  of  the  need  of 
a  good  permanent  agent,  said,  "  Where  so  much  is 
to  be  done  it  ought  to  be  done  by  the  best  man 
and  with  the  best  tact ;  otherwise  it  will  be  un 
done,  or  done  wrong.  Judge  Hoar  was  admirable. 
He  always  persisted  till  he  got  his  answer." 

The  following  extracts  from  his  letters  show 
what  he  was  doing,  and  throw  some  light  on  the 
situation. 

To  J.  M.  FORBES 

WASHINGTON,  May  1,  1861. 
...  I  have  seen  besides  Cameron,  Chase  and 
the  President ;  Cameron  professes  to  be  up  to  the 
full  idea  of  Massachusetts  as  to  vigorous  measures ; 
Chase  has  the  same  notions,  and  the  President 
hopes  the  people  will  be  patient  —  remember  that 


THE  ACTIVITIES  OF  MIDDLE  LIFE     131 

but  two  weeks  have  gone  by  since  the  first  requi 
sition  for  troops,  since  the  Government  knew  what 
they  had  to  rely  on  from  the  people;  that  the 
states  have  not  yet  done  what  the  Government  has 
asked  them  to  do,  although  they  have  done  vastly 
more  than  any  people  ever  did  in  the  same  time ; 
and  that  a  grave  test  of  the  real  purpose  to  do  all 
in  their  power  to  carry  on  the  contest  effectively 
will  be  found  in  the  response  made  to  the  call  for 
money  under  the  new  loan. 

The  most  efficient  service  that  could  be  rendered 
in  Massachusetts,  New  York,  Rhode  Island,  and 
Pennsylvania  at  the  present  moment,  would,  in 
his  and  Mr.  Chase's  opinion,  be  an  agreement  by 
the  banks  of  Massachusetts,  Providence,  New  York, 
and  Philadelphia,  to  take  the  $14,000,000  called 
for  at  par.  Cannot  the  banks  of  Massachusetts  set 
the  example  by  agreeing  to  take  their  share  ?  It 
would  put  the  credit  of  the  country  on  a  stronger 
footing  at  once,  be  a  great  help  in  obtaining  a 
large  loan  in  Europe  when  Congress  meets,  and 
exert  an  influence  upon  our  own  people  and  upon 
the  rebels  of  incalculable  value.  I  have  no  doubt 
that  the  country  banks  would  take  their  full  pro 
portion.  Can  you  and  Mr.  Hooper  do  anything  to 
bring  it  about?  The  example  of  Boston  would 
make  it  very  hard  for  New  York  and  Philadelphia 
to  hold  back.  You  may  probably  have  seen  Mr. 
Chase's  letter  to  Mr.  Hooper,  which  tells  the  whole 
story.  .  .  . 


132      EBENEZER  ROCKWOOD  HOAR 

To  THE  SAME 

WASHINGTON,  May  4, 1861. 

...  I  have  seen  Charles  Lowell,  and  you  will 
hear  that  he  has  had  the  promise  of  a  lieutenant's 
commission  in  the  Army.  I  have  strongly  recom 
mended  him  to  Gen.  Butler  for  immediate  employ 
ment,  and  he  has  gone  to  Annapolis  in  pursuit  of 
it  —  and  I  think  he  will  get  it. 

You  may  rest  assured  that  we  "  have  a  govern 
ment,"  and  I  am  satisfied  that  it  will  come  up  to 
the  demands  and  purposes  of  the  people.  Only  be 
patient  and  have  confidence.  We  have  got  beyond 
"  the  defence  of  the  Capitol,"  and  plans  of  active 
and  energetic  operations  in  several  directions  are 
maturing,  and  will  be  executed  as  fast  as  is  con 
sistent  with  making  the  result  certain.  .  .  . 

Boston  can  do  nothing  so  important  or  service 
able  as  to  carry  through  Chase's  proposition  about 
the  loan.  I  hope  you  will  move  heaven  and  earth 
to  accomplish  it. 

We  wrote  more  fully  to  the  Governor  and  Wil 
liam  Gray  about  it,  and  I  presume  you  saw  the 
letters.  .  .  . 

May  7,  he  writes  of  Charles  Lowell  that  "  he  is 
sensible,  efficient  and  a  trump  into  the  bargain.  I 
have  recommended  the  Governor  to  make  him 
general  agent  here." 

The  two  friends,  Forbes  and  Hoar,  felt  that  al- 


THE  ACTIVITIES  OF  MIDDLE  LIFE     133 

most  the  best  service  they  could  do  to  their  state 
and  her  soldiers,  and  thus  to  their  country,  was 
to  watch  over  and  help  our  "War-Governor,"  and 
save  his  life  by  reasonable  attention  to  his  body's 
needs.  One  Saturday  afternoon,  the  Judge  went 
to  the  State  House,  and  sent  up  the  following  note 
to  the  Executive  Chamber  :  - 

MY  DEAR  FELLOW, — I  came  to  seize  you  and 
take  you  down  to  dine  at  our  Saturday  Club  - 
where  we  expect  Motley  —  for  your  soul's  salva 
tion,  or  body's,  at  least.  Send  that  foolish  Council 
away  till  Monday.  A  man  who  has  no  respect  for 
Saturday  afternoon  has  but  one  step  to  take  to 
join  in  abolishing  the  Fourth  of  July.  "The  Court, 
having  considered  your  case,  do  adjudge  "that  you 
come  down  —  if  you  can't  come  now,  come  down 
half  an  hour  hence — to  Parker's. 
Yours, 

E.  R.  HOAR. 

When,  in  the  first  days  of  the  war,  the  flag 
suddenly  blossomed  everywhere,  his  son  Samuel 
wished  that  his  father  would  buy  one  and  have  a 
ceremonious  "  raising."  He  was  eagerly  pressing 
the  matter  one  day,  when  his  father  ended  the 
matter  by  saying,  "  My  boy,  I  believe  in  a  patriot 
ism  that  never  flags." 

But  the  shadow  of  war  was  soon  to  darken  for 
a  time  his  threshold.  His  eldest  son  was  the  kind 


134      EBENEZER  ROCKWOOD  HOAR 

of  boy  for  whom  the  conditions  of  his  home  were 
unfavorable.  He  was  of  quick  and  eager  disposi 
tion,  intelligent  and  restlessly  active.  At  certain 
stages  of  growth  this  makes  a  boy  mischievous  and 
troublesome.  His  father  was  necessarily  much  away 
from  home ;  his  mother  much  an  invalid,  and  not 
blessed  with  the  power  of  showing  the  tenderness 
she  felt.  Both  loved  the  boy,  but  felt  keenly  their 
duty  as  parents  and  inheritors  of  a  stern  tradition. 

It  is  often  the  case  that  parents  approach  the 
problem  of  rearing  their  family  with  a  strong 
sense  of  responsibility  and  a  watchfulness  for  short 
comings  which  makes  the  lot  of  the  earlier  children 
hard,  but  that  when  the  full  force  of  the  parental 
conscience  has  wreaked  itself  on  these  its  rigor  is 
abated.  Whether  its  edge  is  blunted  by  exercise, 
or  experience  teaches  the  wisdom  of  gentler  meth 
ods,  it  is  certain  that  the  first-born  often  laments 
loudly  the  foolish  weakness  of  his  parents  in 
dealing  with  his  successors,  and  contrasts  it  with 
the  stricter  rules  imposed  on  him,  resolving  at 
the  same  time  to  pursue  with  his  own  progeny  the 
harder  but  better  way. 

This  doubtless  happened  in  the  family  of  Judge 
Hoar.  To  a  very  tender  heart  he  united  a  stern 
sense  of  duty,  and  during  the  period  of  stress  and 
strain,  when  he  was  working  hard  and  travelling 
much,  inevitable  fatigue  doubtless  added  a  certain 
pungency  to  his  words.  As  he  grew  older  his  ten 
derness  got  the  better  of  conscience  and  tradition, 


THE  ACTIVITIES  OF  MIDDLE  LIFE     135 

and  none  of  his  children  thereafter  could  complain 
that  he  was  not  all  that  a  father  could  be.  It  is 
pleasant  to  read  in  this  connection  the  words  of 
his  son  Charles,  who,  writing  to  his  sister  about 
his  father,  said  :  "  May  the  crocuses  soon  come  to 
break  up  your  winter  —  those  '  flowers  through 
the  snow '  reminding  us  all  of  the  love  and  ten 
derness  that  no  austerity  ever  concealed  from  his 
children."  Samuel,  as  the  eldest  son,  had  an  affec 
tionate  nature  that  would  have  responded  quickly 
to  a  show  of  love  and  confidence ;  but  he  was  a 
little  hardened  by  his  experience  both  at  home 
and  at  school,  where  he  was  rather  hardly  dealt 
with  for  his  petty  disorders.  The  war,  besides  its 
call  to  every  boy  of  spirit,  seemed  to  open  a 
way  of  relief  at  this  restless  epoch  of  his  life. 
Though  a  year  under  military  age,  he  was  allowed 
to  join  Concord's  second  company,  which  was 
expected  to  be  rather  a  "home-guard."  In  an 
emergency  it  was  called  out,  but  the  need  passed 
away  and  it  got  no  farther  than  Boston  ;  but 
young  Hoar  ran  away  and  enlisted  in  a  Maine 
regiment. 

Before  he  was  found,  his  father,  in  a  newspaper 
"  personal,"  had  notified  the  boy  that,  if  he  would 
return,  he  should  be  allowed  to  go  to  the  war. 
He  was  transferred  to  the  48th  Massachusetts 
Regiment,  and  served  with  great  credit  in  the 
Port  Hudson  Campaign,  whence  he  returned,  just 
alive,  after  a  fever  contracted  in  camp.  There  is 


136      EBENEZER  ROCKWOOD   HOAR 

a  Spartan  tone  in  this  letter  to  his  brother  George, 
written  by  the  Judge  on  June  16,  1863. 

"We  had  a  grand  letter  from  Sam  last  night. 
He  was  in  both  the  Port  Hudson  fights;  was  not 
in  the  part  of  the  regiment  that  ran  on  the  21st; 
marched  over  the  field  of  a  quarter  of  a  mile  of 
felled  trees  up  to  the  line  of  the  entrenchments, 
—  Balaklava  fashion,  — the  next  man  to  him  had 
his  head  carried  off  by  a  cannon-ball.  He  had  no 
expectation  of  coming  out  alive,  and  had  a  pretty 
narrow  chance.  He  is  acting  as  orderly  sergeant 
of  his  company,  thinks  he  has  everything  to  do, 
gets  little  to  eat  or  drink,  and  not  much  sleep  — 
but  is  perfectly  well  and  unhurt.  Laus  Deo  !  " 

The  Judge  wrote  to  Mr.  Evarts,  whose  son  had 
followed  Sam's  example :  "  If  the  boy  comes  off 
with  life  and  limbs,  I  do  not  feel  sure  but  it  may 
turn  out  the  best  thing  that  could  have  happened 
to  him.  It  certainly  did  in  Sam's  case." 

Thence  dated  a  happy  relation  between  father 
and  son.  The  war  had  sobered  the  boy,  made  a 
manly  youth  of  him,  and  he  had  found  how  he 
loved  his  home.  He  said  he  hoped  now  to  be  as 
much  of  a  comfort  there,  as  before  he  had  been  a 
trial ;  and  so  it  proved. 

The  war  dragged  along.  The  times  were  hard 
indeed.  The  best  men  had  gone  as  volunteers,  and 
many  of  them  had  lost  their  lives,  or  had  come 
home  broken  in  strength.  Concord,  like  every 
village  throughout  the  land,  had  had  her  bitter 


THE  ACTIVITIES  OF  MIDDLE  LIFE     137 

griefs.  Recruiting  was  difficult,  bounties  enor 
mous;  yet  the  people  would  not  abandon  the 
contest,  —  least  of  all  would  the  men  in  the  field. 
But  it  was  a  heavy  task  for  the  elders  at  home  to 
meet  the  steady  demand  for  men  and  money.  Mr. 
Emerson  left  in  his  journal  this  picture :  - 

"November  15, 1863.  At  the  Town  Meeting  one 
is  impressed  with  the  accumulated  virility  of  the 
four  or  five  men  who  speak  so  well  to  the  point 
and  so  easily  handle  the  affairs  of  the  town ;  only 
four  last  night  (Heywood,  Fay,  Brooks,  Hoar),  and 
all  so  good  that  they  would  have  satisfied  me  had 
it  been  in  Boston  or  in  Washington.  The  speech 
of  Judge  Hoar  was  perfect,  and  to  that  handful 
of  people,  who  heartily  applauded  it.  When  a  good 
man  rises  in  the  cold  and  malicious  assembly,  you 
think, '  Well,  it  would  be  more  prudent  to  be  silent. 
Why  not  rest  on  a  good  past  ?  Nobody  doubts  your 
talent  and  power ;  and,  for  the  present  business, 
we  know  all  about  it  and  are  tired  of  being  pushed 
into  patriotism  by  people  who  stay  at  home/  But 
he,  taking  no  counsel  of  past  things,  but  only  of 
the  inspiration  of  his  to-day's  feelings,  surprises 
them  with  his  tidings,  his  better  knowledge,  his 
larger  view,  his  steady  gaze  at  the  new  and  future 
event  whereof  they  had  not  thought ;  and  they 
are  interested  like  so  many  children,  and  carried 
off  out  of  all  recollection  of  their  malignant  non 
sense,  and  he  gains  his  victory  by  prophecy  where 


138      EBENEZER  ROCKWOOD  HOAR 

they  expected  repetition.  He  knew  beforehand 
that  they  were  looking  behind,  and  that  he  was 
looking  ahead,  and  therefore  it  was  wise  to  speak. 
What  a  god-send  are  these  people  to  a  town  ! 

"And  the  Judge,  — what  a  faculty  !  He  is  put 
together  like  a  Waltham  watch,  or  like  a  locomo 
tive  just  finished  from  the  Tredegar  Works." 

Later  in  1863  Mr.  Evarts  was  sent  to  England 
to  help  in  dealing  with  the  questions  raised  by  the 
fitting  out  of  Confederate  privateers  and  war  ves 
sels  in  English  ports.  To  him  in  February,  1864, 
Judge  Hoar  wrote  a  letter  from  which  the  follow 
ing  extracts  are  taken  :  — 

"  I  had  hardly  read  your  parting  words  about 
the  Chief  Justiceship,  when  the  telegraph  brought 
the  disgusting  intelligence,  'Chief  Justice  Taney 
is  better/  and  the  tenor  of  all  subsequent  advices 
has  been  of  the  same  disagreeable  character.  My 
own  feelings  on  the  subject  are  very  precisely  ex 
pressed  in  the  item  cut  from  a  Boston  paper  which 
I  enclose. 

"  You  have  probably  seen  that  Black  has  resigned 
his  office  of  reporter  to  the  Supreme  Court  —  a 
proceeding  which  gives  general  satisfaction.  His 
second  volume  gives  375  pages  to  the  report  of  a 
case  of  his  own,  of  no  very  extraordinary  public 
interest,  filling  more  than  half  the  book,  while  he 
omits  all  notice  of  your  argument  in  the  Prize 
Cases  —  an  outrage  unparalleled,  and  which  re- 


THE  ACTIVITIES  OF  MIDDLE  LIFE     139 

ceives  universal  reprobation.  It  is  a  pity  that  a 
decent  and  competent  man  cannot  be  found  for 
reporter,  yet  we  have  had  none  since  Wheaton. 
Peters  was  too  bad,  Howard  worse,  and  Black  has 
certainly  shown  great  capacity  in  going  beyond 
both  in  the  descending  scale. 

"  We  notice  that  Chief  Baron  Pollock  has  been 
distinguishing  himself  again  in  the  Alexandra 
case.  I  do  not  think  he  would  be  flattered  by  the 
comments  which  his  exhibition  has  elicited  on  this 
side  of  the  water.  But  I  suppose  the  case  will  go 
further  and  that  Laird  will  be  bought  off  by  the 
British  Government.  There  is  not  much  public  or 
private  news  stirring  just  now.  Burnside  has  been 
visiting  Boston,  and  had  a  cordial  reception.  We 
gave  him  a  dinner  at  the  Union  Club,  at  which  I 
sat  next  him  and  heard  his  account  of  Antietam 
and  some  of  his  other  doings,  and  was  much  com 
forted  by  his  assurance  that  we  could  hold  Knox- 
ville  —  which  has  been  strongly  threatened  — 
against  any  force  the  rebels  can  bring  against  it. 
He  seems  a  very  modest,  well-meaning,  faithful 
man  —  who  means  to  do  his  best,  and  I  like  him.  I 
fear  that  even  the  war  cannot  keep  our  people  out 
of  the  usual  scramble  of  a  Presidential  election, 
and  the  signs  thicken  which  indicate  that  even 
the  nomination  of  Lincoln  may  not  be  effected 
without  a  considerable  struggle,  and  perhaps  not 
without  serious  dissensions." 

That  the  Judge  was  not  altogether  satisfied 


140      EBENEZER  ROCKWOOD   HOAR 

with  President  Lincoln  appears  in  a  letter  written 
on  May  4, 1864,  to  Mr.  Forbes,  who  also  was  often 
impatient  with  his  "  waiting  for  the  people." 

MY  DEAR  SIR,  —  I  have  been  holding  court  at 
Lowell  and  did  not  get  your  letter  till  my  return 
home  this  afternoon. 

I  have  read  all  the  papers  you  send,  and  my 
best  judgment  on  the  whole  matter  is  :  — 

I.  That  the  call  for  the  Baltimore  convention  is 
unexceptionable,  and  includes  every  loyal  man  in 
the  country.  That  an  attempt  to  make  it  more 
particular,  by  addressing  persons  of  any  particular 
class,  would  be  likely  to  alienate  more  than  it 
would  conciliate.  Every  man  that  means  honestly 
by  the  country  can  attend  the  convention  or  act 
in  selecting  delegates,  as  fully  as  he  chooses,  if  he 
is  willing  to  take  an  equal  place,  and  stand  on 
equal  ground  with  the  rest  so  far  as  the  adoption 
of  specific  measures  is  concerned. 

II.  I  think  it  would  have  been  originally  wiser 
to  call  the  convention  for  a  later  day,  but  I  doubt 
whether  it  is  now  practicable  to  postpone  it,  and, 
unless  it  is  done,  I  think  the  attempt  to  do  it 
likely  to  prove  mischievous. 

III.  I  have  come  at  last,  though  slowly  and  re 
luctantly,  to  the  decided  conviction,  not  only  that 
Mr.  Lincoln  will  be  certain  to  be  nominated  in 
June,  but  that  he  would  be  equally  certain  to  be 
nominated  in  September  ;  and  further,  that  if  he 


THE  ACTIVITIES   OF  MIDDLE   LIFE     141 

were  not  nominated  at  either  time,  it  would  be 
from  reasons  and  the  operation  of  causes  which 
would  leave  it  of  no  sort  of  consequence  who 
should  be  nominated.  I  think,  if  we  get  into  a 
condition  —  through  Grant's  failure,  or  by  "drift 
ing  "  —  such  that  the  people  will  not  tolerate  Lin 
coln,  it  will  be  by  abandoning  the  whole  concern, 
and  that  there  is  more  danger  that  objection  to 
the  nomination  of  some  one  else  would  be  made 
the  pretext  for  deserting  to  the  enemy,  than  any 
other ;  but  particularly, 

IV.  I  am  sorry  to  say  I  see  no  man  with  whom, 
if  we  could  have  him,  I  should  be  satisfied  that 
we  would  be  better  off  than  with  Lincoln,  all 
things  considered.  I  am  afraid,  in  short,  that  he 
represents  about  the  average  result  (and  perhaps 
even  a  little  better  than  that)  of  all  that  we  have 
to  trust  to  for  suppressing  the  rebellion. 

In  the  latter  part  of  1864  he  interested  himself 
actively  in  promoting  the  candidacy  of  Mr.  Evarts 
for  the  Chief  Justiceship  of  the  United  States,  and 
the  following  extracts  are  taken  from  his  letters 
on  the  subject  to  Mr.  Evarts. 

October  30,  1864,  he  wrote  :  - 

"First,  I  know  that  I  can  procure  the  unani 
mous  opinion  of  our  court  in  your  favor.  The  Chief 
Justice  has  said  to  me  that  he  thinks  your  appoint 
ment  would  be  the  best  that  could  be  made  ;  Gray 
and  Chapman  think  the  same  actively,  and  the 


142      EBENEZER  ROCKWOOD   HOAR 

other  two  would  concur.  I  saw  the  Governor  yes 
terday,  and  he  thinks  likewise  .  .  .  Sumner  I 
have  seen  twice,  the  last  time  yesterday  at  our 
club  at  dinner,  and  have  had  a  full  and  free  con 
versation  with  him.  He  is  entirely  in  the  interest 
of  Chase,  and  if  his  appointment  is  possible,  will 
spare  no  efforts  to  secure  it.  This  is  not  strange 
when  you  remember  those  years  when  he  and 
Chase  and  Hale  stood  alone  in  the  Senate,  subject 
to  everything  which  the  malice  of  the  '  lords  of  the 
lash '  could  devise,  and  outside  of  any  healthy  po 
litical  organization.  The  most  I  could  do  with  him, 
and  all  that  I  attempted,  was  to  satisfy  him  that 
if,  by  any  accident,  Chase  should  fail  to  be  ap 
pointed,  or  did  not  wish  to  be  appointed,  you  were 
the  next  person  by  all  odds.  And  I  think,  though 
I  am  not  wholly  sure,  that  I  have  put  him  in  that 
condition  of  mind.  He  has  a  very  high  estimation 
of  you,  and  is  especially  impressed  by  the  im 
pression  you  made  in  English  society.  .  .  . 

"  But,  on  the  other  hand,  I  am  afraid  that  the 
appointment  of  Chase  is  a  fixed  fact.  One  thing  I 
know,  and  may  say  to  you  confidentially,  that  he 
will  take  it,  and  give  up  politics  forever,  if  he  can 
get  it.  And  further  than  that,  I  learn  from  sources 
which  I  believe  that  the  President  has  promised 
to  appoint  him.  I  do  not  mean  the  old  promise, 
but  a  new  one  within  a  fortnight.  Of  course, 
every  future  intended  presidential  candidate  on 
our  side  will  want  Chase  put  out  of  his  way. 


THE  ACTIVITIES   OF   MIDDLE  LIFE     143 

"I  talked  with  Eliot  the  other  day,  and  was 
charmed  to  find  how  warmly  he  received  the  idea 
of  your  appointment,  but  had  my  gratification 
suddenly  brought  to  a  stand  by  finding  that  he 
thought  Curtis  Noyes  would  do  just  about  as 
well." 

On  November  16,  1864,  he  wrote: - 

"  I  got  Andrew  to  dine  with  me  to-day,  and  in 
stead  of  writing,  he  will  go  to  Washington  him 
self  next  Monday,  and,  I  think,  will  be  the  best 
attorney  you  will  have  from  New  England.  .  .  . 
He  is  going  on  purpose  to  labor  with  the  Presi 
dent,  to  make  sure,  if  he  can,  that  the  office  is 
rightly  filled,  and  thinks  you  the  best  man  for  it, 
if  your  opinions  are  sound  on  two  points  :  1,  that 
the  rights  of  everybody  under  the  Emancipation 
Proclamation  are  to  be  held  sacred ;  2,  that,  as  to 
states  that  have  made  war  on  us,  the  war  is  not 
to  be  considered  as  ended  until  we  are  ready  so 
to  regard  it,  and  that  military  power  is  to  be  ap 
plied  until  our  safety  in  their  return  to  duty  can 
be  secured.  I  vouched  for  your  sanity  on  both 
points,  and  he  is  satisfied.  .  .  . 

"  The  President  knows  all  about  Chase  that  any 
body  can  tell  him.  If  he  intends  to  appoint  him, 
nobody  can  help  it.  If  he  does  not,  the  man  most 
likely  to  receive  the  appointment  is  not  the  man 
to  whom  Chase  will  look  as  his  active  enemy.  He 
may  not  be  able  to  get  the  appointment  himself, 
and  yet  may  have  influence  enough  to  upset  his 


144      EBENEZER  ROCKWOOD   HOAR 

chief  rivals.  What  I  want  is  to  have  Chase  and 
Stanton  the  Kilkenny  cats,  and  have  you  come  in 
as  the  innocent  third  person  —  on  grounds  aside 
from  politics." 

At  last  the  cloud  of  war  swept  away  and  sun 
shine  returned.  When  Concord's  soldiers  of  the 
three  years'  regiments — some  too  who  had  re- 
enlisted —  returned,  the  people  gathered  in  the 
Town  Hall  to  greet  them.  The  Judge  stood  before 
them  and  called  up  one  and  another  by  name,  with 
a  word  or  two  of  praise  and  affection:  "Sergeant 
Charles  Bartlett,  come  up.  We  want  to  shake 
hands  with  you:  we  love  you  for  your  mother." 
"Captain  Humphrey  Buttrick,  we  are  proud  of 
you,  son  of  that  honored  name  !  "  and  so  on. 

And  it  was  he  who  wrote  for  the  monument 
which  Concord  erected  in  memory  of  her  soldiers, 
the  simple  and  beautiful  inscription :  — 

THE  TOWN  OF  CONCORD 

BUILDS  THIS  MONUMENT 

IN  MEMORY  OF  THE  BRAVE  MEN 

WHOSE  NAMES  IT  BEARS 
AND  RECORDS  WITH  GRATEFUL  PRIDE 

THAT  THEY  FOUND  HERE 
A  BIRTHPLACE  HOME  OR  GRAVE 

To  go  back  a  little  chronologically,  a  few  months 
before  Judge  Hoar  assumed  the  heavy  work  of 
the  Supreme  Court,  he  had  a  pleasant  and  no 
table  vacation  experience  as  one  of  a  camping 


THE  ACTIVITIES  OF  MIDDLE   LIFE     145 

party  in  the  Adirondack  Wilderness.  The  company 
were  Agassiz,  Lowell,  Emerson,  John  Holmes,  Jef 
fries  Wyman,  Estes  Howe,  Woodman,  Binney,  and 
William  J.  Stillman.  The  last,  an  artist  and  an  all- 
accomplished  woodsman,  was  captain  of  the  party. 
His  painting  of  them  in  their  camp  on  Follansbee 
Pond  was  bought  by  Judge  Hoar  and  now  hangs 
in  the  Concord  Library.  Mr.  Emerson  celebrated 
the  happy  fortnight's  experiences  in  his  poem  "  The 
Adirondacs."  The  Judge,  not  being  in  good  health, 
perhaps  did  not  find  the  life  beneficial,  though  he 
keenly  enjoyed  the  company.  Leaving  camp  earlier 
than  the  others,  he  went  to  Saratoga  Springs,  and 
writes  to  Mrs.  Hoar  :  — 

"  I  came  in  from  the  lakes  and  mountains  yes 
terday — considerably  browner  and  wiser  than  I 
went.  Neither  Mr.  Emerson  nor  I  have  shot  the 
other,  and  Mr.  Emerson  has  passed  for  a  very 
creditable  woodsman.  I  think  all  our  party  have 
had  a  good  time." 

To  MRS.  E.  R.  HOAR 

SARATOGA,  Aug.  15,  1858. 

.  .  .  Our  party  reached  Lake  George  on  Monday 
evening,  a  fortnight  ago,  getting  no  dinner  on  the 
way,  and  riding  the  sixteen  miles  over  the  plank 
road  from  Moreau.  We  went  down  the  Lake  on 
Tuesday,  took  the  boat  from  Burlington,  crossed 
Lake  Champlain  by  another  steamer  fourteen 
miles  to  Fort  Kent,  and  went  by  stage  four  miles 


146      EBENEZER  ROCKWOOD   HOAR 

to  Keeseville  the  same  night.  There  I  bought  two 
pairs  of  drawers  and  a  gauze  veil.  There  were 
eight  in  the  party,  Emerson,  Woodman,  Agassiz, 
Wyman,  Howe,  Lowell,  John  Holmes  and  myself. 
.  .  .  Mr.  Stillman,  who  met  us  there,  started  after 
dinner  on  our  expedition.  We  went  up  the  Saranac 
Lake,  six  miles  then  by  the  Saranac  River  to  Round 
Lake,  across  that  three  miles,  then  by  Saranac 
River  again,  then  across  a  "  carry  "  where  we  leave 
the  boats,  walk  a  quarter  of  a  mile,  and  the  guides 
carry  the  boats  and  baggage,  round  some  falls,  to 
the  Upper  Saranac  Lake,  then  three  miles  across 
the  lower  end  of  that  to  the  "  Indian  Carry,"  a 
mile  long,  to  the  log-house  of  Stephen  Martin, 
where  we  took  supper  and  lodging,  the  latter  con 
sisting  of  the  floor  of  the  attic.  It  rained  hard  all 
night,  the  mosquitoes  and  midges  were  thick,  we 
did  not  undress,  and  this  with  the  boards  under 
us,  was  a  specimen  to  begin  with.  ...  On  Friday 
at  10  o'clock  we  started  again,  having  Mr.  Binney, 
the  other  member  of  our  party,  with  us.  .  .  , 
The  camp-fire  kept  off  the  mosquitoes  and  midges 
pretty  well,  but,  before  we  left,  the  dogs  had  in 
troduced  some  fleas,  which  were  worse,  as  they 
got  in  under  our  clothing.  ...  A  swim  in  the 
lake  commenced  the  exercises  of  the  day  ;  break 
fast  was  at  8,  and  dinner  at  6.  We  hunted  and 
fished. 

The   deer-hunting  was  of  two  kinds :  in  the 
day-time,  we  went  out  in  our  boats,  and  scattered 


THE  ACTIVITIES   OF   MIDDLE   LIFE     147 

to  different  points  on  the  lake,  to  look  out  for  the 
deer  when  he  should  take  to  the  water.  Then  one 
of  the  guides  took  a  hound  into  the  woods  and 
looked  out  for  a  fresh  deer-track,  and  put  him  on 
it,  and  the  dog  followed  it  up  till  he  found  the 
deer,  which  he  then  chased  perhaps  for  an  hour 
or  two,  till  the  deer  would  take  to  the  water  to 
escape  the  dog,  and  attempt  to  swim  across  the 
lake.  Then  the  boats  would  pursue  him  and  shoot 
him  while  swimming.  In  the  night  a  single  boat 
would  go,  with  a  bright  light  in  the  bow,  shaded 
from  behind,  so  as  to  cast  a  strong  light  forward, 
but  leave  the  boat,  and  the  persons  in  it,  in  perfect 
darkness.  In  this  way  we  would  paddle  up  as 
softly  as  possible  to  the  feeding-ground  of  the 
deer,  where  they  come  down  in  the  night  to  feed 
on  the  lily-pads.  One  man  paddles  in  the  stern, 
and  another  with  a  gun  sits  just  behind  the  light 
in  the  bow ;  and  as  the  light  noiselessly  ap 
proaches  the  shore,  the  deer  stand  and  gaze  on  it, 
seeming  to  be  fascinated,  until  you  can  sometimes 
get  within  two  rods  of  them.  The  slightest  motion 
or  noise  makes  them  alarmed,  and  they  are  off  in 
an  instant.  I  went  out  three  nights,  staying  till 
after  midnight.  From  our  camp  such  of  the  party 
as  chose  made  excursions  to  other  lakes  and  rivers. 
I  went  one  afternoon  to  Big  Tupper  Lake,  the 
head  of  which  is  twenty-seven  miles  from  our 
camp,  stayed  over  night,  went  night-hunting,  and 
returned  the  next  day,  rowing  sixteen  miles  on 


148      EBENEZER  ROCKWOOD   HOAR 

our  return  in  a  drenching  rain.  The  boats  are 
made  very  light  and  very  strong  —  about  the  size 
of  Uncle  Edward's.  We  saw  eagles,  herons,  loons, 
kingfishers,  and  other  birds,  but  no  bears,  pan 
thers  or  wolves.  Agassiz  and  Professor  Wyman 
dissected  and  collected  all  manner  of  animals  and 
plants.  When  I  left,  the  number  of  deer  killed 
and  eaten  was  seven.  My  own  exploits  in  that 
line  were  limited  to  a  charge  of  buckshot  put  into 
the  head  of  one.  Our  party  when  assembled  in 
costume  were  a  remarkable  looking  set,  consider 
ing  who  they  were,  and  I  think  any  one  of  them 
would  have  been  convicted  of  piracy  on  very 
slight  evidence,  especially  Mr.  Emerson.  .  .  . 

In  1868  Chief  Justice  Bigelow  resigned  his  seat 
on  the  Supreme  Bench  of  Massachusetts.  His  natu 
ral  successor,  as  the  ablest  and  most  eminent  law 
yer  on  the  bench,  would  have  been  Judge  Hoar. 
Governor  Bullock,  however,  nominated  Judge 
Thomas.  Judge  Hoar  felt  strongly  in  the  matter, 
and  correspondence  shows  that,  had  Judge  Thomas 
been  confirmed,  Judge  Hoar  would  have  retired 
from  the  bench.  The  nomination  was  rejected  by 
the  Council.  But  the  Governor  would  not  yield, 
and  Judge  Chapman  was  made  Chief  Justice.  Ex- 
Governor  Claflin,  then  of  Governor  Bullock's 
Council,  said  of  Judge  Hoar's  non-appointment : 
"  It  was  a  sad  day  for  the  state,  though  I  believe, 
in  the  end,  his  fame  was  made  national  by  his  re 
jection." 


THE  ACTIVITIES  OF  MIDDLE  LIFE     149 

It  was  in  November  of  that  year  that  Judge 
Hoar  celebrated  Thanksgiving  in  Concord  for  the 
fiftieth  time,  having  been  out  of  his  native  town 
but  twice  on  that  day. 

It  was  during  the  same  year  that  Andrew  John 
son  was  tried  on  articles  of  impeachment.  At  the 
close  of  the  trial  Mr.  Evarts,  who  was  one  of  his  coun 
sel  during  the  trial,  was  appointed  Attorney-Gen 
eral.  The  appointment  called  from  Judge  Hoar  a 
letter  from  which  the  following  passages  are 
quoted. 

CONCORD,  July  18,  1868. 

MY  DEAR  WILLIAM,  —  I  am  at  home,  with  no 
special  obstacle  to  doing  anything  that  presents 
itself  between  now  and  September,  as  my  sum 
mer  work  is  ended ;  but  I  see  by  the  papers  that 
you  have  been  confirmed  as  Attorney-General,  and 
presume  that  it  puts  an  end  to  your  freedom  for 
the  present.  .  .  . 

But  as  to  your  being  the  Attorney-General  under 
existing  circumstances  (though  now  that  it  is  a 
fixed  fact  I  hope  you  may  find  it  pleasant  and  for 
your  honor  and  profit),  I  do  not  feel  sure  enough 
about  it  to  offer  many  congratulations,  or  indeed 
to  know  what  to  say. 

Your  defence  of  the  President  could  not  be 
avoided,  when  he  applied  to  you  to  undertake  it ; 
and  with  a  little  regret  that  you  should  be  mixed 
up  with  it,  it  was  very  gratifying  to  see  you  fill  so 
conspicuous  a  place  with  such  masterly  ability. 


150      EBENEZER  ROCKWOOD  HOAR 

Your  position  could  be  vindicated  before  angels 
and  men.  Every  criminal  has  a  right  to  the  aid 
of  counsel  on  his  trial,  and,  if  defended  at  all,  to 
be  ably  defended.  It  is  the  right  even  of  the  thief 
and  the  counterfeiter.  But  when,  after  the  ac 
quittal,  the  grateful  client  invites  his  counsel  to 
go  into  partnership  with  him,  some  other  consid 
erations  seem  to  apply. 

Well,  prevent  all  the  mischief  you  can,  depend 
on  the  judgment  and  the  sense  of  honor  of  your 
self  more  than  of  your  associates  in  the  Cabinet, 
and  God  send  you  a  good  deliverance  ! 

It  may  give  Helen  and  Hetty  the  opportunity 
of  seeing  Washington  under  agreeable  conditions 
next  winter,  at  all  events,  on  which  I  congratu 
late  them,  and  am, 

Faithfully  yours, 

E.  R.  HOAR. 

THE  HON.  WILLIAM  M.  EVARTS. 

His  friendship  with  James  Russell  Lowell,  which 
began  years  before,  became  increasingly  more  in 
timate,  and  it  is  interesting  to  trace  its  growth  in 
the  letters  which  passed  between  them. 

Thus,  on  February  5,  1855,  he  writes  :  — 

MY  DEAR  SIR,  —  Whenever  a  guest  is  expected 
in  our  village,  those  of  us  who  have  a  certain  com 
munity  of  interest  are  apt  to  regard  him  as  a  sort 
of  negotiable  instrument,  payable  to  (R.  W.  Emer 
son,  for  example)  or  order,  and  endorsed  not  only 


THE  ACTIVITIES  OF   MIDDLE  LIFE     151 

without  recourse  (on  his  part)  but  without  com 
punction  (on  ours).  Consider  yourself  the  victim  of 
a  relentless  fate,  and  be  assured,  that,  Mr.  Emerson 
being  absent,  I  have  the  authority  of  his  wife  for 
hoping  that  you  will  save  yourself  a  half-mile 
walk  or  ride  by  stopping  at  my  house,  and  for  say 
ing  that  you  will  not  thereby  be  offending  any 
hospitable  expectations  at  the  other  end  of  the 
town. 

I  am  at  East  Cambridge  every  day,  and  go  home 
in  the  four  o'clock  train  from  Boston,  in  which  I 
hope  to  meet  you  on  Wednesday. 

Very  truly  yours, 

E.  R.  HOAR. 

On  July  31,  1861,  he  wrote  the  letter  from 
which  this  passage  is  quoted  :  - 

MY  DEAR  LOWELL, —  .  .  .  It  would  have  given 
me  great  pleasure  to  join  in  any  attention  to  Mot 
ley,  especially,  whose  recent  service  to  the  country 
I  think  of  a  very  high  character.  It  seems  of  a 
kind  very  much  like  that  which  Gouverneur  Mor 
ris  rendered  in  the  Revolution,  —  giving  the  na 
tion  the  benefit  of  his  private  credit  at  a  time  of 
extreme  need,  —  and  should  be  marked  with  great 
honor.  .  .  . 

On  September  2,  1864,  was  written  the  follow 
ing : — 


152      EBENEZER  ROCKWOOD   HOAR 

MY  DEAR  JAMES,  —  I  do  not  wish  you  to  forget 
to  send  me  the  extra  verses  of  the  new  book  of 
"Zek'el,"  -and  therefore  remind  you  that  they 
are  yet  to  arrive.  By  the  way,  I  have  not  seen 
Mr.  Biglow's  poetic  version  of  the  Chicago  plat 
form,  with  the  omitted  resolutions  necessary  to 
its  completeness.  Perhaps  the  principal  one  which 
the  telegraph  failed  to  furnish  may  be  gathered 
in  substance  from  the  others,  namely,  that  if  their 
candidate  should  be  elected,  after  first  releasing 
all  imprisoned  traitors,  he  should  next  repair  to 
Richmond  without  an  instant's  delay,  and  present 
ing  his  back  to  Jeff  Davis,  humbly  and  respect 
fully  request  him  to  kick  it.  Perhaps  it  would 
gratify  the  party  to  have  that  done,  even  if  he 
should  not  be  elected,  and  I  think  it  might  be  ar 
ranged.  Apparently  a  great  many  would  like  to 
go  with  him,  for  the  chance  of  making  the  expia 
tion  in  their  own  persons,  without  trusting  to 
mere  vicarious  humiliation  through  their  repre 
sentative  and  federal  head.  Fancy  the  sensations 
of  a  fellow  that  has  not  been  kicked  by  a  slave 
holder  for  four  years,  when  the  toe  of  the  boot 
first  touches  him,  and  he  is  sure  that  it  is  no  de 
lusion  !  What  wonder  that  they  are  illuminating, 
and  firing  cannon,  at  the  mere  anticipation. 

Faithfully  yours, 

E.  R.  HOAR. 
PROFESSOR  LOWELL. 


THE  ACTIVITIES  OF  MIDDLE  LIFE     153 
The  following  bears  date  June  2,  1865 :  - 

MY  DEAR  JAMES,  — ...  I  had  heard  with  grief 
unspeakable  of  your  gout,  and  am  glad  you  are  so 
well  out  of  it.  In  my  opinion  no  man  has  a  right 
to  leave  gout  to  his  descendants  without  leaving 
a  well-stocked  cellar,  particularly  rich  in  old  Ma 
deira,  to  mitigate  the  infliction. 

Qui  sentit  onus,  sentire  debet  et  commodum,  — 
to  reverse  the  law  maxim  — ... 

July  17,  1865,  he  writes  :  - 

MY  DEAR  JAMES,  —  Do  not  think  of  such  a 
thing.  The  o.  B.  K.  have  heard  me  till  they  are 
sick  of  it,  and  I  will  not  try  their  patience  further. 
I  had  intended  to  go  into  the  dinner  a  few  min 
utes,  just  to  help  fill  up  and  hear  your  opening  re 
marks,  but  that  blessing  will  be  denied  me,  unless 
I  may  be  permitted  to  do  it  in  silence. 

Yet  he  went  to  the  dinner  and  not  "  in  silence." 
The  marshal  of  the  day  tells  this  story  of  the  oc 
casion  :  - 

"  The  orator  of  the  day  was  a  gentleman  from 
another  university,  and  after  dinner  Mr.  Lowell, 
who  presided,  called  upon  him  for  a  speech.  In 
accordance  with  the  time-honored  custom  of  visit 
ing  scholars  on  such  occasions,  he  began  his  re 
sponse  somewhat  in  this  way  :  - 

" '  Alumni  of  Harvard  College,  it  has  been  the 
object  of  my  dearest  ambition  to  find  myself  with 
you  on  this,  your  day  of  annual  rejoicing.  For  who 


154      EBENEZER  ROCKWOOD   HOAR 

is  there  so  dull  and  unlettered  that  he  has  not 
heard  of  Harvard  College — a  college  which  boasts 
its  Agassiz,  and  its  Felton,  and  its  Lowell,  and  its 
Longfellow,  and  its  Gray/  Here  the  speaker  be 
gan  to  hesitate,  and  the  audience  began  to  take  a 
hand  at  prompting  him,  and  from  various  quarters 
came  the  suggestion,  'Peirce/  'Peirce/  He  did 
not  immediately  catch  the  suggestion,  but  went 
on  hesitatingly,  '  and  its  Lovering,  —  and  its 
Goodwin ' — and  then  with  a  sudden  jump  —  'and 
its  Peirce.'  When,  after  a  peroration,  he  sat  down, 
Judge  Hoar  promptly  rose  to  his  feet  and  said, 
'  Mr.  President,  I  hope  the  speaker  will  pardon  me 
if  I  say  that  he  reminds  me  somewhat  of  the  man 
who  was  going  into  the  woods  to  chop  all  day,  and 
carried  his  dinner  but  forgot  his  axe/ 

"  It  was  a  brilliant  dinner,  but  this  joke,  almost 
alone  of  all  that  was  said,  has  made  a  permanent 
lodgment  in  my  memory." 

From  the  same  letter  to  Lowell  comes  this  ex 
tract,  which  indicates  how  the  friends  spent  their 
time  in  Concord  :  - 

".  .  .  So  bring  on  your  Acres.1  (Is  his  Christian 
name  Bob  ?)  Mine  are  a  little  broader  than  they 
were  when  you  last  saw  them  ;  and  we  can  smoke 
the  calumet  at  the  river  without  resting  our  backs 
against  one  fence,  and  our  feet  against  the  other 
—  as  the  way  used  to  be." 

1  Refers  to  Charles  Akers,  a  very  charming  man  and  an  artist, 
who  made  a  crayon  portrait  of  Lowell. 


THE  ACTIVITIES  OF  MIDDLE  LIFE     155 

The  next  letter  acknowledges  the  receipt  of  a 
copy  of  the  Commemoration  Ode,  one  of  a  few 
especially  printed  for  presentation  to  Mr.  Lowell's 
friends  :  - 

CONCORD,  Sept.  10,  1865. 

Many  thanks  for  your  beautiful  book,  which 
the  mail  brought  punctually  to  hand,  and  which 
"  No.  7  "  of  your  friends  received  with  pride  and 
pleasure. 

I  cannot  compare  the  poem  with  all  that  has 
made  you  famous,  because  it  has  no  relation  to 
such  things  as  "  Biglow  Papers, "  "  Fable  for 
Critics,"  and  so  on.  But  it  has  affected  me  more, 
in  hearing  and  reading,  than  anything  of  yours  of 
the  serious  kind ;  and  I  think  its  tone  lofty  and 
noble,  and  the  execution  worthy  of  the  theme. 

What  an  occasion  that  Commemoration  was ! 
Why !  It  was  the  whole  war  concentrated,  and 
you  have  embalmed  its  essence  and  its  flavor 
forever. 

I  don't  believe  there  ever  was  such  a  time  to 
live  in  as  our  lifetime,  since  the  world  was  made  ; 
and  I  consider  falling  in  with  you  as  one  of  the 
chief  felicities  of  existence,  which,  if  I  should  n't 
go  to  Heaven  (as  is  much  to  be  doubted),  will  give 
great  help  in  striking  a  comfortable  balance  of 
the  total  result  of  my  creation. 

I  still  think  the  best  line  in  the  poem  is 
That  is  best  blood  which  hath  most  iron  in  't, 
but  there  are  whole  strophes  that  I  have  read 


156      EBENEZER  ROCKWOOD   HOAR 

over  many  times  with  delight,  and  should  be  glad 
to  hear  you  read  again.  .  .  . 

Lowell  wrote  thus  of  his  friend  in  his  rustic 
verse  apropos  of  Concord  :  - 

I  know  the  village,  though;  was  sent  there  once 
A-schoolin',  'cause  to  home  I  played  the  dunce; 
An'  I  've  ben  sence  a-visitin'  the  Jedge, 
Whose  garding  whispers  with  the  river's  edge, 
Where  I  Ve  sot  mornin's  lazy  as  the  bream, 
Whose  on'y  business  is  to  head  up-stream, 
(We  call  'em  punkin-seeds,)  or  else  in  chat 
Along  'th  the  Jedge,  who  covers  with  his  hat 
More  wit  an'  gumption  an'  shrewd  Yankee  sense 
Than  there  is  mosses  on  an  ole  stone  fence. 

Lowell  dedicated  his  second  series  of  "  Biglow 
Papers,"  in  which  these  lines  occur,  "  To  E.  R. 
Hoar "  :  "A  very  fit  thing  it  seems  to  me,"  he 
said,  "  for  of  all  my  friends  he  is  the  most  genuine 
Yankee." 

This  compliment  the  Judge  thus  acknow 
ledged  :  - 

CONCORD,  November  3,  1866. 

MY  DEAR  JAMES,  —  I  desire  reverently  to  ex 
press  my  profound  sense  of  obligation.  I  am 
handed  down  to  posterity.  Immortality  is  secure. 
An  attache  to  some  splendid  embassy,  a  poor  plod 
ding  pedestrian  suddenly  and  unexpectedly  re 
ceiving  a  "  lift "  that  takes  him  to  his  journey's 
end,  a  donation  visit  to  a  country  minister — com 
parisons  fail  me ! 


THE  ACTIVITIES  OF   MIDDLE  LIFE     157 

I  procured  one  of  the  earliest  copies  of  the  sec 
ond  series  of  the  "  Biglow  Papers  "  from  Fields, 
and  sat  down  to  read  it.  At  the  touching  dedica 
tion  I  paused ;  not,  however,  till  I  had  read  it 
through.  Then  I  read  it  again  —  it  impressed  me. 
Then  again  —  it  impressed  me  still  more.  Then  I 
thought  I  would  shew  it  to  my  wife  —  she  smiled, 
but  added  nothing  by  way  of  comment  or  inter 
pretation. 

I  have  read  the  book  since ;  first  the  new  parts, 
with  new  admiration,  though  I  confess  to  not 
making  out  "  Dupleveorum  "  without  assistance ; 
and  then  the  parts  which  I  had  seen  before,  and 
whose  command  of  smiles  and  tears  remains  un 
impaired  by  familiarity. 

But  altogether,  and  including  the  model  index, 
nothing,  after  all,  impressing  me  like  the  dedica 
tion.  How  much  it  leaves  to  the  imagination  ! 

But,  in  whatever  sense  it  may  be  taken,  the  fact 
is  there  —  I  am  on  board  —  luggage  marked  — 
and  future  generations  will  hear  of  me  without 
the  expense  of  a  tombstone.  The  measure  of  my 
earthly  ambition  is  satisfied,  and  why  should  I 
live  longer? 

Do  not  trouble  yourself  to  send  me  a  copy,  ex 
cept  the  long  paper,  in  due  season.  It  has  reached 
me,  as  you  perceive  from  what  I  have  said  above. 
It  came  as  directed. 

And  now,  my  beloved,  I  take  it  you  have  no 
longer  any  doubt  of  the  wisdom  of  your  conclu- 


158      EBENEZER  ROCKWOOD  HOAR 

sion  to  work  the  vein  a  second  time.  It  is  a  rich 
and  abundant  success,  beside  your  knowing  that 
it  is,  like  Audrey,  "  mine  own."  .  .  . 

With  the  most  affectionate  regards, 

E.  R.  HOAR. 

The  next  is  characteristic :  — 

BOSTON,  Nov.  19,  1866. 

MY  DEAR  JAMES,  —  I  take  it  for  granted  that 
you  recognize  the  great  etymological  truth  that 
"  dog-goned  "  is  a  mere  Virginian  euphemism  for 
G — d  d — d,  in  the  vernacular.  But  what  I  wish  to 
call  your  attention  to  is  the  derivation  of  " chores" 
—  or  preferably  and  before  modern  corruption 
"  chars  "  —  from  the  Latin  "  quid  facere"  i.  e., 
things  to  do.  It  came  into  English  at  about  the 
time  of  many  Spanish  words,  and  by  the  same 
route  with  punctilio,  bravado,  and  the  like.  The 
Spanish  is  "que  hacer" ;  and  the  Spaniard  habitu 
ally  makes  a  noun  of  the  phrase,  and  says  that  he 
must  go  and  do,  or  attend  to,  his  " que-haceres" 
which  he  rapidly  pronounces  very  much  like 
"  char-es." 

My  brother  Edward  (who,  like  a  cat,  knows 
more  than  he  usually  tells)  says  the  Spanish  Cali- 
f  ornians  constantly  and  habitually  use  the  phrase, 
and  that  it  was  scarcely  distinguishable  by  the 
ear  from  "char-es"  —  that  he  recognized  the 
word  chores  as  soon  as  he  heard  it. 


THE  ACTIVITIES  OF   MIDDLE  LIFE     159 

The  following  letter  refers  to  the  dedication  of 
the  Soldiers'  Monument  at  Concord,  June  24, 
1867:- 

"  I  have  sent  you  the  Monument  pamphlet ;  and 
if  you  take  the  trouble  to  read  my  report,  I  must 
beg,  as  I  said  the  other  day,  that  you  will  remem 
ber  that  the  style  in  which  one  may  talk  to  the 
mourners  at  a  funeral  is  not  to  be  very  closely 
criticised. 

"  It  took  all  my  courage  to  venture  to  appear  on 
the  same  occasion  with  Mr.  Emerson,  but  there 
was  no  help  for  it.  Trusting  that  the  sound  would 
help  the  sense,  I  went  ahead  ;  and  it  did. 

"His  address  is  a  very  pretty  little  contribution 
to  the  story  of  the  war." 

The  following  doubtless  refers  to  something 
said  in  connection  with  the  nomination  of  Judge 
Thomas,  and  a  suggestion  that  it  might  lead  to 
Judge  Hoar's  election  as  governor  of  Massachu 
setts  :  - 

"...  To  the  letter  of  January  12,  I  can  only 
add  my  fervent  Amen  to  all  its  anathemas,  and 
confess  my  deep  pride  and  delight  at  its  affec- 
tionateness.  But  when  I  think  of  the  real  subject 
of  its  discussion,  it  almost  'gars  me  greet'  to 
think  what  a  dear,  royal,  deluded  old  boy  you  are, 
and  what  an  ornamental,  embellishing,  mistaken 
imagination  you  have  the  capacity  to  indulge  in. 

"  I  have  put  a  stop  to  all  that  nonsense  about 
governor,  which  really  began  to  assume  a  certain 


160      EBENEZER  ROCKWOOD  HOAR 

resemblance  to  reality,  and  will  tell  you  about  it 
the  next  time  we  foregather,  when,  with  Dryden 
off  your  hands,  and  your  notions  thereupon  trans 
ferred  to  my  receptive  and  gratified  head,  I  hope 
to  find  you  lazily  and  deliberately  taking  your 
share  of  the  rest  which  remains  for  the  people  of 
God.  .  .  ." 

At  Commencement  this  year  (1868)  he  received 
from  Harvard  the  degree  of  LL.D.,  which  Will 
iams  College  had  given  him  seven  years  before. 

This  is  his  reply  to  an  invitation  to  celebrate 
Lowell's  fiftieth  birthday  :  — 

CONCORD,  Feb.  20,  1869. 

...  I  am  improving  a  little  to-day,  but  visiting 
Cambridge  on  Monday  will  be  out  of  the  question. 
So  fill  my  place  with  somebody  better.  I  am  very 
sorry,  but  you  may  rely  on  my  joining  in  the  cele 
bration  of  your  100th,  by  which  time  we  may 
hope  to  have  got  over  these  infantile  diseases,  and 
to  have  settled  down  into  a  good  steady  pace — 
for  life. 

Sherman  responds  cordially  to  your  salutation. 

I  believe  I  have  told  you  this  story  of  him,  but 
it  is  so  much  to  the  purpose  of  what  is  in  my  mind 
at  this  moment  that  I  must  repeat  it.  He  was 
listening,  with  flushed  face  and  sparkling  eyes,  to 
a  story  of  a  young  man  in  Vermont  who  went 
across  a  long  railroad  bridge  over  the  Connecti 
cut,  just  before  it  was  swept  away  by  the  freshet, 


THE  ACTIVITIES  OF  MIDDLE  LIFE     161 

and  with  all  the  chances  that  it  would  not  hold 
together  till  he  could  get  over,  for  the  purpose  of 
giving  warning  to  an  express  train  that  was  com 
ing  on  in  the  darkness ;  and  at  the  end  of  the 
story  S.  asked,  "Was  that  since  I  was  born?"  On 
being  told  that  it  was,  and  only  a  year  or  two  be 
fore,  he  drew  a  long  breath,  and  exclaimed,  "  Oh  ! 
I  'm  glad  /  was  alive  when  he  did  that  /" 

Which  is  what  I  am  thinking  of  the  fruits  of 
those  fifty  years  —  and  so,  God  bless  you. 


CHAPTER  V 

THE  ATTORNEY-GENERALSHIP 

GENERAL  GRANT  was  inaugurated  as  President 
of  the  United  States  on  March  4,  1869.  His  ex 
perience  of  their  interference  during  the  Civil 
War  had  inspired  him  with  a  lively  dislike  of  poli 
ticians,  and  he  determined  to  be  independent  of 
them.  He  chose  his  Cabinet,  therefore,  without 
consulting  the  leaders  of  the  Republican  party, 
selecting  them  not  on  account  of  their  political 
prominence,  but  because  he  liked  them  personally, 
or  because  he  had  found  them  friendly  or  useful. 
He  named  as  Secretary  of  State  Elihu  B.  Wash- 
burne,  of  Illinois ;  as  Secretary  of  the  Treasury, 
Alexander  T.  Stewart,  of  New  York ;  as  Secretary 
of  War,  John  A.  Rawlins ;  as  Secretary  of  the 
Navy,  Adolph  E.  Borie,  of  Philadelphia  ;  as  Secre 
tary  of  the  Interior,  Jacob  D.  Cox,  of  Ohio ;  as 
Postmaster-General,  John  A.  J.  Creswell,  of  Mary 
land,  and  as  Attorney-General,  E.  R.  Hoar,  of 
Massachusetts.  Washburne  had  been  his  stanch 
supporter  from  a  very  early  day  in  his  career. 
Rawlins  had  been  his  chief  of  staff,  and  was  his  in 
timate  friend.  Cox  had  been  a  distinguished  offi 
cer  in  the  western  campaigns  of  the  Civil  War.  It 
was  suggested  at  the  time  that  Stewart  and  Borie 


THE  ATTORNEY-GENERALSHIP     163 

had  been  liberal  contributors  to  the  funds  raised 
in  New  York  and  Philadelphia  to  purchase  houses 
for  him ;  but  however  that  may  be,  both  were  pro 
minent  merchants,  and  had  been  friendly  to  him. 

The  circumstances  which  led  to  Judge  Hoar's 
selection  are  stated  thus.  In  forming  his  Cabinet, 
the  new  President  had  offered  the  portfolio  of  the 
Interior  to  George  S.  Boutwell,  who  declined  it ; 
but  when  he  did  so  the  President  suggested  that 
he  might  appoint  an  Attorney-General  from  Mas 
sachusetts.  In  reply  to  this  suggestion  Boutwell 
named  Judge  Hoar,  and  advised  his  appointment. 
Senator  Hoar  says  that  the  same  suggestion  from 
another  eminent  Massachusetts  man  who  was  not 
in  Congress  had  more  weight.  This  gentleman 
suggested  Judge  Clifford,  which  did  not  interest 
General  Grant,  and  then  Judge  Hoar.  "  The  Presi 
dent  replied  with  great  earnestness  and  emphasis, 
'  I  know  all  about  Judge  Hoar  ! '  He  had  met  him, 
I  think,  on  two  occasions,  and  had  sat  next  him  at 
dinner,  and  had  a  very  hearty  and  cordial,  though 
brief,  acquaintance  with  him.  The  result  was  that 
Judge  Hoar's  name  was  sent  in." 

It  was  at  once  discovered  that  Mr.  Stewart  was 
ineligible  to  the  office  for  which  he  had  been 
named,  under  the  statute  of  1789,  which  provided 
that  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  should  not 
"  directly  or  indirectly  be  concerned  in  carrying 
on  the  business  of  trade  or  commerce. "  Mr.  Sher 
man  of  Ohio,  on  Saturday,  March  6,  offered  in  the 


164      EBENEZER  ROCKWOOD   HOAR 

Senate  a  bill  to  repeal  this  statute  and  asked  unan 
imous  consent  to  its  passage.  Senator  Sumner 
objected,  and  on  his  objection  the  bill  went  over 
and  was  never  moved  again,  it  being  at  once  ap 
parent  that  public  sentiment  both  in  and  out  of 
Congress  was  opposed  to  it.  The  appointment  of 
Mr.  Boutwell  in  place  of  Mr.  Stewart  was  then  con 
sidered,  but  it  was  objected  that,  if  this  were  done, 
there  would  be  two  Cabinet  officers  from  the  same 
state,  which  for  various  reasons  seemed  undesir 
able.  On  Sunday,  the  7th,  Mr.  Washburne  called 
on  Senator  Sumner,  pointed  out  the  difficulty,  and 
urged  Senator  Sumner  to  ask  Judge  Hoar  to  de 
cline  the  office  of  Attorney-General.  The  Senator 
replied  that,  as  he  had  not  been  consulted  in  re 
gard  to  making  the  appointment,  he  must  decline 
to  interfere.  Senator  Hoar,  who  had  entered  the 
House  of  Representatives  on  March  4,  tells  his 
experience  in  these  words :  — 

"In  the  evening  after  the  Cabinet  had  been 
announced,  Mr.  William  B.  Washburn,  afterward 
governor,  called  upon  me  at  my  room.  Mr.  Wash- 
burn  and  I  were  not  then  intimate,  although  we 
afterward  became  close  friends.  He  said  he  had 
been  requested  by  the  [Massachusetts]  delegation 
to  tell  me  that  they  had  earnestly  hoped  that  Mr. 
Boutwell  might  have  a  place  in  the  Cabinet,  and 
that,  although  they  had  great  regard  for  Judge 
Hoar,  they  hoped  that  some  arrangement  might 
still  be  made  which  would  bring  about  the  selection 


THE  ATTORNEY-GENERALSHIP     165 

of  Mr.  Boutwell.  I  told  Mr.  Washburn  that  I  was 
quite  sure  that  the  appointment  of  Judge  Hoar 
would  be  a  surprise  to  him,  as  it  was  to  me,  and 
that  I  thought  it  quite  doubtful  whether  he  would 
wish  to  leave  his  place  on  the  bench  for  a  seat  in 
the  Cabinet,  but  I  could  not  speak  for  him  or  judge 
for  him.  I  telegraphed  at  once  to  Judge  Hoar  not 
to  commit  himself  in  any  way  until  he  reached 
Washington  and  could  see  me." 

A  telegram  was  sent  to  the  Judge  on  Monday, 
requesting  him  to  refuse  the  office  of  Attorney- 
General,  to  which  he  replied  asking  that  nothing 
be  done  until  he  could  reach  Washington  and  see 
the  President.  The  nomination  had  been  a  com 
plete  surprise  to  him,  and  he  had  no  intimation  of 
it  until  it  was  announced  on  the  bulletin  boards 
of  the  Boston  newspapers. 

Senator  Hoar  continues  his  narrative  thus:  — 
"  I  met  him  at  the  depot,  told  him  of  the  com 
munication  of  the  Massachusetts  delegation  and 
that,  especially  considering  President  Johnson's 
quarrel  with  Congress,  it  seemed  quite  important 
that  General  Grant,  who  had  no  experience  what 
ever  in  political  life,  should  have  some  person 
among  his  counsellors  who  had  the  full  confidence 
of  the  leaders  in  Congress.  The  Judge  strongly 
appreciated  that  view.  When  he  called  upon  Pre 
sident  Grant  his  first  conversation  consisted  in 
urging  upon  him  very  strongly  the  selection  of 
Governor  Boutwell.  He  supposed  then  that  it 


166      EBENEZER  ROCKWOOD   HOAR 

would  be  quite  unlikely  that  the  President  would 
take  two  men  from  the  same  state,  and  supposed 
that  selection  would  require  his  own  refusal  of 
the  offer  of  the  office  of  Attorney-General.  Presi 
dent  Grant  said  that  he  would  think  it  over  and 
not  decide  the  question  that  day.  The  next  morn 
ing  he  sent  for  the  Judge  and  said :  '  Judge,  I 
think  I  would  like  to  have  you  take  the  oath  of 
office/  He  handed  the  Judge  his  commission. 
The  Judge  looked  at  it  and  saw  it  was  not  signed. 
He  said,  'I  think  perhaps  it  would  be  better  if 
you  were  to  sign  it.'  Grant  laughed  and  complied 
with  the  suggestion. 

"Judge  Hoar's  first  official  duty  was  to  give  an 
opinion  upon  the  question  whether  Mr.  Stewart, 
who  had  been  nominated  for  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury,  could  under  the  law  undertake  the  of 
fice.  Mr.  Stewart  proposed  to  make  some  convey 
ance  of  his  business  interest,  by  which  he  should 
part  with  his  legal  title  to  it  while  he  held  the 
office  of  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  and  come  back 
to  it  again  after  his  term  ended.  But  the  Attorney- 
General  advised  the  President  that  that  was  im 
practicable,  and  the  result  was  the  withdrawal  of 
Mr.  Stewart's  name  and  the  appointment  of  Mr. 
Bout  well  a  day  or  two  afterward." 

The  Judge's  feelings  in  regard  to  his  own 
appointment  may  be  gathered  from  his  letters. 
On  hearing  of  the  nomination  he  wrote  to  his 
brother  in  Washington:  — 


THE   ATTORNEY-GENERALSHIP     167 

"  I  am  astonished !  Unutterably !  I  do  not  know 
what  to  do,  and  hardly  what  to  think.  The  poor 
man  in  the  Arabian  Nights  who  was  taken  away 
in  his  sleep  and  found  himself  in  the  Caliph's 
palace  in  the  morning  with  a  complete  change  of 
identity,  and  deprived  of  his  wife  and  children,  is 
the  only  parallel  case  that  occurs  to  me. 

"  We  are  in  the  midst  of  our  March  Term,  with 
some  heavy  cases  reserved  by  me  just  reached, 
and  I  could  not  in  justice  to  suitors  or  my  associates 
leave  to-day.  It  seems  to  me  that  respect  to  General 
Grant,  and  to  the  high  compliment  involved  in 
such  an  unexpected  appointment  from  him,  un 
doubtedly  requiresthat  I  should  go  to  Washington 
immediately,  and,  as  your  telegram  suggests,  there 
decide  what  duty  requires  to  be  done.  .  .  . 

"I  shall  reach  Washington  by  six  or  seven 
o'clock  on  Tuesday,  when  I  will  see  you  and  Mr. 
Evarts,  and  try  to  learn  what  it  all  means,  but,  it 
being  the  middle  of  the  March  Term,  must  wait  a 
day  in  justice  to  suitors  and  my  associates." 

He  adds  :  "  Caroline  will  suspend  any  proceed 
ings  for  divorce  till  I  have  been  to  Washington  and 
concluded  what  to  do  —  and  the  selectmen  of  Con 
cord  will  not  apply  to  the  judge  of  probate  for  a 
guardianship  as  a  spendthrift  for  a  week  or  two, 
if  I  will  agree  to  accept  notice  at  Washington,  in 
case  I  do  not  return  within  that  time.  My  creditors 
have  not  recovered  sufficiently  from  their  aston 
ishment  to  get  together." 


168      EBENEZER  ROCKWOOD  HOAR 

Apropos  of  these  remarks  on  the  economic  side 
of  the  question,  the  salary  of  the  Attorney-General 
was  then  perhaps  one  third  larger  than  the  salary 
Judge  Hoar  was  receiving  as  a  justice  of  the 
Supreme  Court  of  Massachusetts;  but  living  in 
Washington  as  a  member  of  the  Cabinet  was  ex 
pensive,  and  the  Concord  home  for  the  family 
must  also  be  maintained.  In  earlier  days  the  At 
torney-Generalship  brought  with  it  a  large  prac 
tice  in  the  Supreme  Court  at  Washington,  but 
during  the  war  and  since,  the  Attorney-General 
had  been  too  much  burdened  with  public  work  to 
do  anything  for  himself. 

It  was  a  time  when  the  public  was  giving 
houses  to  men  who  had  served  their  country  well, 
like  Grant  and  Sherman,  and  it  was  suggested  that 
some  of  Judge  Hoar's  friends  in  Massachusetts 
might  help  him  by  giving  him  a  house  in  Wash 
ington.  The  following  letter  of  Senator  Hoar  to 
Hon.  P.  W.  Chandler,  written  on  March  13,  1869, 
is  interesting  in  this  connection. 

"I  have  received  within  a  few  minutes  your 
letter  concerning  the  proposed  offer  to  provide  a 
house  for  Judge  Hoar.  I  have  not  the  slightest 
doubt  what  his  reply  to  such  an  offer  would  be,  if 
made  to  him.  But  as  I  think  his  answer  to  such  a 
proposal  should  be  the  result  of  his  own  determina 
tion  and  not  mine,  I  shall  say  nothing  about  it  to 
him,  and  must  decline  being  the  medium  of  any 
communication  with  him  upon  the  subject." 


THE  ATTORNEY-GENERALSHIP     169 

It  would  appear  that  the  proposal  was,  not  un 
naturally,  abandoned. 

A  letter  which  he  wrote  to  Richard  H.  Dana 
after  the  interview  with  General  Grant  tells  what 
happened  on  his  arrival  in  Washington. 

"  I  appeared  in  Washington  as  independent  of 
all  political  schemes  and  persons,  as  I  was  in  the 
Court  House  in  Boston.  ...  I  went  to  see  the 
President,  had  an  interview  of  an  hour,  most  of 
it  spent,  on  my  part,  in  urging  reasons  why  I 
should  not  accept  his  offer,  and  when  I  left  him  I 
went  to  bed  as  clear  of  all  earthly  responsibility 
as  a  man  well  could  be.  The  telegram  of  Monday 
was  sent  to  me,  by  his  consent  indeed,  but  with 
out  his  approbation.  Everything  since  has  been 
fabrication,  hope  or  conjecture,  which  the  news 
papers  have  circulated  concerning  me. 

"  I  cannot  tell  you  what  was  said  to  me  by 
Grant,  but  I  have  been  told  by  others  what  he  has 
since  said  to  them,  and  you  would  not  be  distressed 
on  my  account  to  hear  it.  I  seemed  to  impress  him 
as  a  discovery. " 

On  March  10,  Judge  Hoar  resigned  his  seat  on 
the  Supreme  Bench  of  Massachusetts. 

Meantime,  in  the  quiet  village,  five  hundred 
miles  away,  where,  in  those  days,  everybody  knew 
everybody,  the  news  had  spread  from  the  telegraph 
office  to  the  Main  Street  and  on  the  Mill  Dam,  that 
her  foremost  citizen  had  been  called  to  be  one  of 


170      EBENEZER  ROCKWOOD   HOAR 

the  guides  and  guardians  of  the  Republic.  One  who 
happened  to  be  "  down  town  "  just  then  reported 
that  every  face  wore  a  smile  of  proud  satisfaction 
at  the  Judge's  national  honor,  which,  as  they  re 
called  Governor  Bullock's  recent  refusal  to  ap 
point  him  Chief  Justice,  changed  to  a  "  girn." 

One  of  the  Judge's  family,  writing  to  him  in 
1869,  mentions  that  she  had  been  to  call  on  two 
interesting  remains  of  eighteenth-century  maiden 
hood,  on  the  road  to  Carlisle.  One  of  these  ancient 
crones  had  asked,  "  What  made  Mr.  Hoar  go  ?  We 
don't  want  our  best  man  to  go  off  there  !  I  hope 
he  don't  like." 

But  at  the  National  Capitol  "  Judge  Hoar's  ap 
pointment  was  received  .  .  .  with  great  approba 
tion,  and  the  Massachusetts  delegation  both  in 
Senate  and  House,  with  but  one  or  two  exceptions 
in  the  latter,  were  earnest  and  hearty  in  their  eu 
logies,"  l  so  Senator  Hoar  wrote  to  his  sister-in- 
law  in  Concord  on  March  14 ;  and  he  adds,  after  al 
luding  to  Governor  Boutwell's  share  in  influencing 
the  appointment :  — 

"  Rockwood,  in  his  turn,  was  largely  instrumen 
tal  in  removing  from  the  President's  mind  the  ob 
jections  which  existed  to  Bout  well.  No  sugges 
tion  that  either  should  withdraw  has  ever  been 
made  by  our  delegation  or  approved  by  it.  Presi 
dent  Grant  expressed  his  satisfaction  with  his 
selection  of  Rockwood  in  a  way  quite  unusual 

1  General  Butler  was  then  in  the  House. 


THE  ATTORNEY-GENERALSHIP     171 

with  him,  saying  to  Mr.  Conkling  of  New  York, 
'Judge  Hoar  is  magnificent/  Unless  some  un 
foreseen  change  should  take  place,  Rockwood  will 
remain  in  the  Cabinet  as  long  as  he  pleases." 

Yet  later  in  his  "  Autobiography,"  Mr.  Hoar  ad 
mits  that  there  were  grave  considerations  against 
having  two  members  of  the  Cabinet  from  Massa 
chusetts,  especially  then,  when  there  was  great 
jealousy  of  that  state  in  the  Republican  party. 
In  the  Senate,  Sumner  was  at  the  head  of  the 
Committee  on  Foreign  Relations,  Wilson  was  chair 
man  of  the  Committee  on  Military  Affairs  ;  and, 
in  the  House,  Banks,  Butler,  Washburn,  Dawes, 
Hooper,  and  Buffington  were  respectively  at  the 
head  of  important  committees.  "So  it  was  well 
understood  on  both  sides  that  Judge  Hoar's  con 
tinuance  in  office  was  very  likely  not  to  be  per 
manent,  and  that  he  considered  the  President  at 
liberty  to  fill  his  place,  whenever  it  could  con 
veniently  be  done.  There  was  no  Cabinet  officer  at 
all  from  the  South."  Creswell,  the  Postmaster- 
General,  came  from  a  Border  state. 

The  Judge,  writing  from  Washington  to  Lowell, 
thanking  him  for  his  "hurrah  "  of  congratulation, 
fears  that  his  appointment  may  do  more  harm 
than  good  by  blocking  the  way  for  good  men  of 
Massachusetts. 

"  I  have  already  expressed,"  he  says,  "  the  opin 
ion  that  you  ought  to  go  as  minister  to  Spain  or 
Austria  (the  latter,  of  course,  only  in  case  Motley 


172      EBENEZER  ROCKWOOD   HOAR 

goes  to  London)  and  that  either  Boutwell  or  I,  or 
both  of  us,  if  necessary,  ought  to  quit  the  Cabinet, 
if  it  stood  in  the  way  of  such  a  public  benefac 
tion.  But  I  feel  very  much  like  an  intruder,  and 
can  only  say  that,  while  I  am  about,  the  President 
shall  have  as  much  honest  counsel,  given  with 
such  directness  and  earnestness  as  the  opportunity 
may  allow,  as  I  am  able  to  furnish,  and  that, 
whenever  my  duty  in  that  behalf  ceases,  no  one 
can  be  more  glad  of  it  than  myself." 

Lowell's  reply  should  be  preserved  for  the  light 
which  it  throws  upon  Judge  Hoar  as  well  as  on 
his  own  character. 

ELMWOOD,  29th  March,  1869. 

MY  DEAR  JUDGE,  —  I  did  not  look  for  any  answer 
to  my  letter,  knowing  how  overwhelmed  you  must 
be  with  business.  But  I  can't  help  answering  your 
letter,  knowing  that  a  whiff  of  Massachusetts 
must  be  a  cordial  to  you  where  you  are. 

If  you  could  have  heard  the  talk  at  Club  on 
Saturday,  you  would  have  been  pleased.  Did  n't 
you  notice  any  burning  of  the  ears  between  three 
and  four  o'clock  on  that  day?  Everybody  was 
warm  about  you,  and  not  merely  that,  but  (what 
I  liked  better)  everybody  was  glad  of  the  gain 
the  country  has  made  in  you.  It  was  all  very 
sweet  to  me  you  may  be  sure,  but  it  would  have 
pleased  you  most  (as  it  did  me)  to  hear  Emerson, 
whose  good  word  about  a  man's  character  is  like 


THE  ATTORNEY-GENERALSHIP     173 

being  knighted  on  the  field  of  battle.  It  is  so,  at 
least,  to  you  and  me,  who  know  him.  Generally, 
you  know,  we  are  apt  to  congratulate  a  man  on 
getting  an  office,  but  in  this  case  we  all  wished 
the  office  joy  of  getting  the  man.  In  short,  it  was 
just  what  you  deserved  and  what  an  honest  man 
may  fairly  like  to  hear  of. 

Never  dream  of  quitting  your  place.  A  man 
with  a  head  and  heart  that  you  have,  who  knows 
the  good  and  evil  of  politics,  is  just  what  the  Presi 
dent  wants.  He  has  an  eye  for  men,  and  will  not 
part  with  you.  You,  who  might  have  had  any  place 
that  Massachusetts  had  to  give,  either  state  or  na 
tional,  and  who  chose  rather  the  line  of  duty  than 
that  of  ambition,  are  in  your  right  place,  whoever 
else  is.  We  are  apt  to  say  that  honor  seeks  out 
such  men,  and  so  she  does,  but  promotion  is  not  so 
quick-eyed  and  finds  them  less  seldom.  I  am  say 
ing  nothing  new  —  for  you  know  the  opinion  I 
have  always  held  of  your  aptitude  for  public  serv 
ice  —  nor  am  I  speaking  out  of  gratitude,  though 
the  tears  came  into  my  eyes  when  I  read  your 
generous  words. 

I  know  that  some  of  my  friends  had  talked  of 
me  for  some  place  abroad,  but  I  thought  it  had 
blown  over  long  ago.  I  need  not  say  I  should  like 
some  small  place,  like  Switzerland,  which  I  could 
afford.  Spain,  of  course,  would  be  delicious  —  but 
I  have  no  "claims"  and  would  not  stand  in  any 
body's  way,  least  of  all  in  Motley's.  Your  letter 


174      EBENEZER  ROCKWOOD   HOAR 

startled  me.  I  had  no  notion  I  had  been  spoken 
of  anywhere  but  here,  and  a  mission  could  hardly 
please  me  more  than  your  speaking  of  me  so 
warmly,  nor  indeed  would  be  worth  so  much.  I 
shall  communicate  your  letter  to  none  but  Fanny, 
and  a  secret  confided  to  her  is  dropped  into  a  well. 
I  thank  you  as  old  friendship  only  can. 

Don't  laugh  —  but  the  office  I  am  most  interested 
about  is  our  Post  Office  in  Old  Cambridge.  The 
present  incumbent  ought  to  be  kept  in  and  if  you 
can  properly  say  a  word  to  Mr.  Creswell,  I  hope 
you  will.  ...  He  is  not  an  active  politician  (though 
a  very  active  postmaster)  and  a  man  with  a  family 
dependent  on  him  has  an  excuse  for  wishing  to 
keep  his  place,  if  he  can  do  so  without  loss  of  honor. 
You  see  what  a  log-roller  I  am  become. 

Again  I  say,  do  not  answer  this.  I  understand 
perfectly  what  you  have  on  your  hands.  I  shall 
write  to  you  now  and  then  with  a  little  Club  news. 
In  what  I  said  about  Club  opinion  at  the  beginning 
of  my  letter,  I  did  not  mean  to  imply  that  such 
feelings  were  confined  to  your  personal  friends. 
I  gather  but  one  sentiment  from  all  quarters,  as 
honorable  to  you  as  it  is  deserved.  It  is  but  fair 
that  you  should  know  it.  You  need  backing  less 
than  most  men — but  you  ought  to  be  pleased. 
Always  lovingly  yours,  J.  R.  L. 

His  brother  tells  this  anecdote  of  the  Judge  at 
his  first  Cabinet  meeting. 


THE  ATTORNEY-GENERALSHIP     175 

"  The  President  brought  up  the  case  of  a  man, 
whom  he  said  he  proposed  to  appoint  Chief  Justice 
of  one  of  the  territories.  He  said  he  was  a  man 
for  whom  he  had  great  sympathy,  who  had  lost 
both  legs  in  battle.  There  was  an  entire  silence 
about  the  board,  which  was  at  last  broken  by  the 
Attorney-General  as  follows:  'Mr.  President,  it 
seems  to  me  that  mere  absence  of  legs  is  not  a 
sufficient  qualification  for  a  judicial  office/  The 
other  gentlemen  at  the  table  thought  the  observa 
tion  rather  audacious.  But  the  President  laughed 
and  said  he  would  consider  the  matter  further. 
But  the  man  was  not  appointed." 

Chief  Justice  Field  thus  speaks  of  the  tasks  that 
came  upon  the  Judge,  and  their  performance :  - 

"In  the  administration  of  the  office  of  Attorney- 
General  of  the  United  States,  he  took  exclusive 
charge  of  the  political  business  of  the  office,  and 
he  had  to  deal  with  many  matters  of  grave  im 
portance.  Our  relations  with  Great  Britain,  espe 
cially,  were  in  an  unsatisfactory  condition,  and 
although  the  burden  of  the  negotiations  belonged, 
under  the  President,  to  the  Secretary  of  State,  yet 
Judge  Hoar  strongly  supported  the  Secretary.  It 
was  in  consequence  of  this,  as  well  as  of  the  con 
fidence  which  the  President  had  in  his  character, 
ability  and  good  judgment,  that  (later)  caused  his 
appointment  as  one  of  the  commissioners  to  ne 
gotiate  the  treaty  of  Washington." 

Mrs.  Hoar  could  be  little  at  Washington,  but 


176      EBENEZER  ROCKWOOD   HOAR 

had  to  take  charge  of  the  Concord  home.  The 
Judge  however  had  a  new  pleasure,  in  finding 
his  eldest  boy,  now  at  his  side,  a  helper  and  com 
panion.  He  had  studied  law,  on  leaving  college,  in 
his  uncle's  office ;  then  served  his  kinsman,  Hon. 
William  M.  Evarts,  the  Attorney-General  under 
President  Johnson,  as  pardon  clerk ;  and,  as  such, 
remained  when  his  father  was  called  into  the 
Cabinet. 

The  latter  in  writing  to  his  wife  in  July,  1869, 
from  the  heated  capitol  said  :  — 

"  I  am  happy  to  think  that  that  vivacious  boy 
Sam  has  been  enjoying  the  sea-breezes  for  the 
past  two  days,  and  will  have  cheered  you  all  up 
by  the  time  this  letter  reaches  you.  He  has  been 
a  great  comfort  to  me,  and  it  seems  already  lone 
some  without  him." 

The  Administration  was  at  first  busied  with 
questions  of  appointment,  and  the  letters  already 
quoted  show  something  of  Judge  Hoar's  feeling 
in  regard  to  them.  President  Johnson,  as  a  result 
of  his  long  contest  with  Congress,  had  left  his 
successor  a  troublesome  legacy  of  unsettled  ques 
tions,  and  foremost  among  these  was  the  dispute 
with  England  growing  out  of  the  claim  made  by 
the  United  States,  that  England  should  pay  for 
the  injury  done  us  by  the  Alabama  and  the  other 
Confederate  privateers.  Mr.  Reverdy  Johnson,  still 
our  minister  to  England,  had  negotiated  a  treaty 
with  Lord  Clarendon  for  the  settlement  of  the 


THE  ATTORNEY-GENERALSHIP     177 

controversy ;  but  on  April  13,  1869,  Senator  Sum- 
ner  made  a  speech  against  it,  and  it  was  rejected 
by  a  unanimous  vote  of  the  Senate.  Mr.  Sumner 
took  the  ground  that  the  treaty  was  entirely  in 
adequate  since  it  provided  only  for  the  adjust 
ment  of  individual  claims  and  left  untouched  the 
great  wrong  done  to  the  United  States  as  a  nation. 
He  claimed  that  our  real  grievance  lay  in  the  con 
cession  of  ocean  belligerency  to  the  Confederacy 
and  the  consequent  prolongation  of  the  war.  He 
outlined  a  national  claim  of  enormous  magnitude, 
and,  as  England  was  very  unlikely  to  recognize 
such  a  claim,  the  situation  became  delicate.  Wise 
men  on  both  sides  of  the  water  interested  them 
selves  in  trying  to  find  a  solution  of  the  difficulty, 
and  the  circumstances  gave  Judge  Hoar  a  great 
opportunity.  His  position  is  suggested  by  the  fol 
lowing  extract  from  a  letter  to  John  M.  Forbes, 
written  June  25,  1869  :  — 

"  I  did  not  agree  with  Sumner  on  the  Tenure-of- 
Office  bill,  and  fear  he  does  not  regard  me  as 
absolutely  reflecting  the  full  light  of  his  Alabama 
Claims  as  much  as  I  ought  to,  but  our  personal 
relations  are  and  always  have  been  most  cordial, 
and  my  respect  and  regard  for  him  are  very 
strong." 

He  had  long  held  Mr.  Sumner  in  high  honor 
and  personal  esteem,  and  they  were  in  close  politi 
cal  sympathy,  though  they  did  not  always  agree 
as  to  details  or  methods.  He  therefore,  as  the  per- 


178      EBENEZER  ROCKWOOD   HOAR 

son  who  possessed  at  once  the  confidence  of  the 
Administration  and  of  Sumner,  who  in  this  matter 
at  least  represented  the  Senate,  was  in  a  position 
to  exercise  great  influence,  and  he  acted  in  cordial 
cooperation  with  Secretary  Fish,  who  had  suc 
ceeded  Mr.  Washburne  in  the  State  Department. 
On  this  subject  he  wrote  to  R.  H.  Dana  on  May 
10:  — 

"Be  assured  that  this  Administration  .  .  .  knows 
some  things.  Do  not  be  in  the  least  disturbed. 
Strictly  between  ourselves,  if  Sumner  keeps  his 
temper,  you  will  have  no  occasion  to  lose  yours." 

John  Lothrop  Motley  was  appointed  by  the  new 
Administration  to  succeed  Reverdy  Johnson,  and 
after  the  rejection  of  the  Johnson-Clarendon 
Treaty  the  discussion  of  the  question  between  the 
two  governments  was  for  a  while  abandoned ;  but 
Secretary  Fish's  instructions  to  Mr.  Motley  bear 
ing  date  May  15, 1869,  and  the  later  instructions 
to  the  same  minister  of  September  25, 1869,  stated 
the  position  of  this  country  in  accordance  with 
Mr.  Sumner's  speech.  Judge  Hoar  was  doubtless 
consulted  in  regard  to  them,  but  the  responsibility 
was  on  Mr.  Fish,  who  conferred  with  Mr.  Sumner 
and  Caleb  Gushing,  and  it  does  not  appear  that 
Judge  Hoar  took  any  prominent  part  in  the  mat 
ter. 

Another  question  of  international  interest,  how 
ever,  engaged  his  attention,  and  in  the  determi 
nation  of  this  he  exercised  an  important  influence. 


THE  ATTORNEY-GENERALSHIP     179 

An  insurrection  in  Cuba  was  in  active  progress 
when  General  Grant  was  inaugurated,  and  General 
Rawlins,  the  Secretary  of  War  and  the  President's 
intimate  friend  and  trusted  adviser,  was  anxious 
to  intervene  in  behalf  of  the  insurgents.  He  urged 
as  a  first  step  that  the  United  States  should  re 
cognize  them  as  belligerents,  taking  the  course 
in  regard  to  them  which  England  had  taken  in 
recognizing  the  belligerency  of  the  Confederate 
States.  As  this  was  one  of  the  principal  grounds 
upon  which  our  government  rested  its  claims 
against  England,  it  was  very  important  that  the 
United  States  should  not  do  exactly  what  it  blamed 
England  for  doing.  General  Grant  was  disposed  to 
take  the  advice  of  General  Rawlins,  and  doubt 
less  on  general  grounds  favored  the  policy  of  an 
nexing  West  Indian  territory.  Mr.  Sumner  strongly 
opposed  the  recognition  of  Cuban  belligerency  on 
the  ground  that  it  was  not  justified  by  interna 
tional  law,  and  believed,  as  he  wrote  to  Caleb 
Gushing  on  July  19,  1869,  that  "The  best  chance 
for  Cuba  is  through  a  kindly  policy  with  Spain. 
With  a  thoroughly  upright  system  we  can  obtain 
all  we  desire." 1 

Judge  Hoar  strongly  supported  Mr.  Sumner  and 
aided  Secretary  Fish  in  preventing  the  proposed 
recognition.  Sumner,  in  a  letter  to  Motley  of  June 
29,  1869,  said :  "  Hoar,  who  is  now  here,  tells  me 
that  at  the  last  Cabinet  meeting  he  went  into  the 

1  Pierce's  Life  of  Sumner,  vol.  iv,  p.  403. 


180      EBENEZER  ROCKWOOD  HOAR 

belligerency  question,  and  against  the  concession  to 
the  Cubans"; l  and  the  Judge  himself,  on  June  28, 
wrote  to  Sumner :  — 

"  You  would  make  no  apology  for  your  Cuban 
sermon  if  you  knew  how  zealous  a  member  of  the 
same  church  you  were  addressing.  My  wish  and 
first  impulse  was  to  inclose  your  note  to  the  Presi 
dent,  but  I  forbore  for  two  reasons  :  (1)  I  had  not 
your  permission  to  do  so ;  and  (2)  I  was  afraid  he 
would  suspect  you  of  plagiarism,  as  he  must  be 
reasonably  familiar  with  that  train  of  remark,  if 
he  keeps  up  any  recollection  of  my  discourses.  I 
shall  not  be  back  in  Washington  till  next  Monday, 
and  I  do  not  think  that  anything  can  happen  be 
fore  then ;  but  there  is  need  of  all  the  steadiness 
that  anybody  can  contribute." 2 

The  opposition  prevailed  and  Cuba  was  not 
recognized,  remaining  to  be  —  as  any  oppressed 
people,  be  it  a  nation,  a  race,  or  a  class,  must  al 
ways  be  —  a  prolific  source  of  future  trouble. 

Judge  Hoar,  however,  had  difficulties  more  pecu 
liarly  his  own.  Congress  had  distrusted  President 
Johnson  so  entirely  that  an  act  had  been  passed, 
in  1866,  taking  from  the  President  the  power  of 
appointing  any  new  judge  of  the  Supreme  Court 
until  the  number  of  judges,  then  ten,  should  be 
reduced  to  seven,  and  providing  that  thereafter 
the  court  should  consist  of  seven  members.  When 
General  Grant  became  President  there  were  eight 

1  Pierce's  Life  of  Sumner,  vol.  iv,  p.  403.  8  Ibid. 


THE  ATTORNEY-GENERALSHIP     181 

judges  on  the  bench,  and  an  act  passed  during  the 
spring  session  of  1869  fixed  the  number  of  the 
judges  at  nine,  and  also  created  a  new  judgeship 
in  each  Federal  circuit.  The  duty  therefore  de 
volved  upon  the  Attorney-General  of  advising  the 
President  as  to  the  choice  of  one  justice  of  the 
Supreme  Court,  and  all  the  new  circuit  judges, 
—  a  duty  in  which  the  Senate  was  zealous  to 
render  its  assistance.  It  was  essential  that  the 
judges  in  the  Southern  circuit  should  be  both  good 
lawyers  and  men  who  had  been  loyal  during  the 
Civil  War,  for  it  seemed  unsafe,  while  the  feelings 
created  by  that  struggle  were  still  fresh,  to  trust 
the  decision  of  important  questions  growing  out 
of  the  war  to  men  who  were  not  in  cordial  sym 
pathy  with  the  government.  Judge  Hoar  after 
ward,  in  speaking  of  his  difficulties,  said,  "  My 
situation  was  somewhat  like  that  of  the  parish 
committee  who  went  to  a  divinity  school  in  search 
of  a  minister,  and  were  told  by  the  president  that 
the  students  fell  readily  into  three  classes,  those 
who  had  talents  without  piety,  those  who  had  piety 
without  talents,  and  those  who  had  neither." 

His  colleague  in  the  Cabinet,  Secretary  Jacob 
D.  Cox  of  Ohio,  thus  describes  his  attitude  in  this 
matter :  — 

"  The  passage  of  the  new  judiciary  act  called 
for  the  nomination  of  the  whole  class  of  circuit 
judges,  and  the  Attorney-General's  heart  was  set 
on  having  the  new  places  filled  by  men  who  would 


182      EBENEZER  ROCKWOOD   HOAR 

honor  the  bench  in  the  performance  of  those 
judicial  duties,  subordinate  only  to  those  of  the 
Supreme  Court.  He  could  not  always  make  his 
judgment  of  men  potent,  but  the  President  stood 
by  him  so  well,  on  the  whole,  that  the  judicial 
nominations  sent  to  the  Senate  that  winter  are 
proof  enough  of  his  character  and  his  courage." 

These  final  tests  of  men,  character  and  fitness, 
did  not  please  the  senators,  who  felt  that  their 
recommendations  of  candidates  were  entitled  to 
the  first  consideration.  Nearly  every  senator  had  a 
candidate  of  his  own  for  the  Circuit  Court,  but  in 
almost  every  instance  the  President  took  the  At- 
torney-GeneraPs  advice.  "In  one  of  the  two  cases 
where  he  did  not,"  says  Senator  Hoar,  "  he  was 
compelled  by  the  sentiment  of  the  profession  and 
the  public  to  withdraw  the  senator's  candidate 
after  he  had  been  nominated." 
>  Thus  friction  began  and  rapidly  increased.  Such 
a  man  in  such  a  place  was  intolerable  to  politi 
cians  with  friends  to  reward  and  influence  to  main 
tain,  but  his  position  was  impregnable  to  direct 
assault ;  he  was  the  President's  authorized  adviser 
on  these  points,  and  evidently  strong  in  honesty. 
Unhappily  the  Judge's  manner  in  discharging  his 
duty  was  not  engaging.  He  had  the  plain  speech  and 
trying  sincerity  of  latitude  42°  N.  in  an  extreme 
degree,  and  it  proved  hard  to  bear  at  Washington. 
Yet  he  was  but  half  conscious  of  it.  One  of  his 
fellow  members  of  the  Cabinet  said,  "When  deal- 


THE  ATTORNEY-GENERALSHIP     183 

ing  with  injustice  or  dishonesty,  the  edge  of  his 
humorous  sarcasm  cut  like  a  knife,  and  the  doer 
of  the  wrong  had  no  refuge  from  self-contempt 
but  in  wrath  and  in  hatred.  ..."  Nearly  every 
complaint  of  acerbity  in  his  temper  arose  directly 
from  discomfited  attempts  to  make  judges  or  dis 
trict  attorneys  of  disreputable  or  unfit  men.  With 
spoilsmen  of  this  class  he  was  apt  to  use  plain 
English.  No  doubt  he  had  thus  made  a  consider 
able  number  of  influential  enemies  by  the  close  of 
1869. 

"  These  were  individuals,  but  soon  the  attitude 
adopted  by  the  Attorney-General  as  President's 
adviser  was  taken  as  a  wholesale  affront  to  the 
upper  house  of  Congress  by  most  of  its  members. 
The  Senate  has  been,  and  at  this  period  was  be 
coming  more  than  ever  jealous  of  its  rights  and 
its  prerogatives."  Senator  Zachariah  Chandler  of 
Michigan  introduced  a  resolution  in  the  Senate 
requiring  the  Attorney-General  to  report  the  condi 
tion  of  certain  cases  between  the  United  States  and 
various  defendants.  The  resolution  was  adopted 
and  sent  to  the  Attorney-General.  He  declined  to 
comply  with  it ;  reminded  the  Senate  that  he  was 
not  a  clerk  for  them,  but  responsible  only  to  the 
President,  and  suggested  that  the  Senate  apply  to 
the  Executive.  Thereupon  Senator  Chandler  and 
those  who  voted  with  him  were  angry,  and  refused 
to  have  communication  with  the  President  through 
the  Attorney-General's  office.  The  Judge,  in  speak- 


184      EBENEZER  ROCKWOOD  HOAR 

ing  of  this  action  to  a  friend,  showed  some  amused 
satisfaction  at  having  caught  the  senators  in  this 
mistake  about  their  right  to  demand  information 
of  him.  Technically  and  morally  the  Attorney- 
General  was  proof  against  attack,  but  his  course 
naturally  produced  irritation  and  impaired  his  just 
influence.  The  obvious  tactical  move  was  to  stir 
the  feeling  increasingly  prevalent  in  the  delega 
tions  from  other  states, — too  much  Massachusetts 
in  the  Cabinet.  The  Judge's  generous  readiness 
not  to  embarrass  the  Administration  was  known. 
Grant  felt  the  pressure,  but  liked  the  Judge,  saw 
his  strength  and  wisdom  and  felt,  too,  the  moral 
tonic  which  he  had  always  needed,  and  which  un 
til  now,  his  near  friend  and  "  his  conscience  "  in 
camp  and  at  the  White  House,  General  John  A. 
Rawlins,  had  supplied.  This  brave  man  had  died, 
and  now  at  the  President's  elbow  as  private  secre 
tary  and  old  crony,  was  General  Orville  E.  Babcock, 
an  astute  man  of  little  principle,  but  who  had 
Grant's  confidence  and  regard. 

The  vacancy  on  the  Supreme  Bench,  created  by 
the  act  to  which  reference  has  just  been  made, 
offered  the  President  a  way  out  of  his  difficulties, 
and  in  September  23,  1869,  he  asked  Judge  Hoar 
to  accept  the  vacant  seat.  In  this  way  he  could 
pay  the  Judge  a  high  compliment,  make  an  emi 
nently  proper  appointment  to  the  Supreme  Bench, 
and  relieve  himself  from  embarrassment.  Judge 
Hoar  did  not  at  once  accept  this  offer,  and  a  letter 


THE  ATTORNEY-GENERALSHIP     185 

to  his  wife  of  October  19  states  the  reasons  for 
his  hesitation. 

"  This  question  must  be  soon  decided,  and  gives 
me  a  great  deal  of  thought.  In  the  first  place  the 
opportunity  is  not  one  that  may  occur  oftener 
than  once  in  a  lifetime.  The  salary  is  now  $6,000, 
about  what  it  was  in  Massachusetts,  considering 
the  difference  in  expense.  I  think  I  could  get 
along  with  our  expenses  through  this  year,  which 
seems  likely  to  be  the  most  expensive,  with  the 
start  I  have  now,  and  then  I  am  very  confident 
that  the  salaries  will  soon  be  raised.  Then  I  have 
not  yet  had  any  private  business,  and  unless  I  do 
I  can  lay  up  nothing.  I  did  have  one  private 
client's  offer  to-night  in  a  large  and  profitable 
case,  but  I  was  obliged  to  decline  it,  because  it 
involved  going  to  New  York  to  argue  a  question 
before  the  Circuit  Judge,  and  I  cannot  leave  Wash 
ington  while  the  court  is  in  session.  I  like  being 
Attorney-General  very  well,  but  whenever  I  leave 
the  office  I  have  only  the  prospect  of  returning  to 
practise  at  the  bar,  which  does  not  look  attractive 
or  pleasant  at  my  time  of  life  ;  and  if  I  hold  on 
through  Grant's  administration,  I  should  have  lost 
the  chance  of  money-making  for  a  long  time,  and 
should  be  rather  too  old  to  begin  life  so  much 
anew  in  the  rough  work  of  the  bar.  Then  I  should 
have  no  prospect  before  me  if  I  did  not  succeed 
in  laying  up  money  enough  for  our  wants  in  later 
life,  if  I  should  live  to  be  old.  On  the  other  hand, 


186      EBENEZER  ROCKWOOD  HOAR 

the  salary  of  a  judge,  whatever  it  may  be,  will 
last  for  life,  and  with  the  right  to  give  up  work  at 
seventy,  if  I  should  reach  the  age.  To  Sam,  and  I 
dare  say  to  Amelia,  who  see  me  mainly  when 
at  leisure  or  at  rest,  I  may  seem  younger  and  more 
full  of  resources  than  I  feel  myself  to  be,  but  my 
life  and  health  have  been  such  that  I  know  I  am 
older  than  most  men  at  my  age.  You  will  see  from 
all  this  that  my  present  inclination  of  mind  is 
rather  to  accept  the  President's  offer.  Yet  I  al 
most  feel  that  it  is  ignominious  to  retire  from  ac 
tive  duty  in  the  public  service,  and  I  should  not 
want  to  make  a  determination  which  involves  such 
a  permanent  change  in  our  mode  of  life  without 
your  full  approbation.  .  .  . 

"  I  want  you  to  think  of  it  and  let  me  know." 
The  following  passage  from  a  letter  of  Novem 
ber  20,  1869,  written  by  his  friend  and  former 
partner  Horace  Gray,  then  on  the  Supreme  Bench 
of  Massachusetts,  is  interesting :  — 

"Doubt  prevails  here  whether  you  are  to  go 
upon  the  Supreme  Bench,  and  most  among  those 
who  should  know  best.  If  you  ever  mean  to  do  so, 
the  temptation  must  be  strong  to  do  it  now,  when 
good  work  is  so  much  needed,  not  only  on  the 
great  constitutional  questions,  but  on  bankruptcy, 
commercial  and  maritime  law,  and  many  other 
branches  on  which  some  of  their  eminences  are 
hardly  experts.  It  would  be  unpleasant  in  dispell 
ing  the  vision  of  our  court's  ever  regaining  its 


THE  ATTORNEY-GENERALSHIP     187 

natural  head.  Yet  I  do  not  see  how  any  one  judi 
cially  inclined  can  hesitate  upon  such  a  question. 
The  Supreme  Court  has  always  seemed  to  me  the 
greatest  judgment  seat  in  the  world,  and  the  im 
mediate  reconstruction  of  the  Southwest  must  be 
a  most  attractive  mission. 

"  The  whole  law  upon  this  point,  however,  as  on 
many  others,  is  well  summed  up  in  that  favorite 
authority  of  mine,  the  Body  of  Liberties :  '  The 
general  court  hath  libertie  and  authoritie  to  send 
out  any  member  of  the  Commonwealth,  of  what 
qualitie,  condition  or  office  whatsoever,  into  f  oreine 
parts  about  any  publiqe  menage  or  negotiation: 
Provided  the  party  sent  be  acquainted  with  the 
affaire  he  goeth  about  and  be  willing  to  undertake 
the  service/  And  you  know,  as  I  do  not,  the  sense 
of  power  and  public  usefulness  of  a  driver  of  the 
car  of  state,  as  compared  with  that  of  a  passenger 
on  ever  so  high  a  bench  inside.  What  a  pity  it 
is  that  pro  hac  vice  the  Attorney-General  cannot 
lay  down  the  law  to  the  court  like  a  judge  advo 
cate." 

An  opposing  view  is  found  in  a  letter  from  his 
classmate  and  friend,  Charles  W.  Storey,  written 
on  December  21: — 

"  I  am  only  sorry  you  were  nominated.  It  seems 
to  me  much  better  for  the  country,  for  you,  and 
for  the  President,  that  you  should  remain  where 
you  are,  than  that  you  should  accept  even  the 
great  place  of  Justice  of  the  Supreme  Court.  To 


188      EBENEZER  ROCKWOOD   HOAR 

furnish  the  ideas  on  which  the  Executive  must 
act  at  this  juncture  in  the  matter  of  reconstruc 
tion  is  more  important,  in  my  view,  than  to  decide 
deliberately  on  the  wisdom  of  it  all  afterwards, 
and  of  course  requires  more  brains.  ...  I  am 
surprised  the  President  should  have  thought  of 
letting  you  go.  To  have  a  man  about  him  who 
understands  politics  and  politicians,  without  being 
himself  a  politician  and,  as  such,  obliged  to  wor 
ship  his  own  tail  of  smaller  politicians,  must  be  a 
luxury  to  him,  especially  as  the  man  smokes." 

He  finally  decided  to  accept  the  appointment, 
and,  on  December  14,  his  nomination  was  sent  to 
the  Senate.  The  nomination  at  once  encountered 
opposition  in  the  Senate,  and  a  personal  hostility 
developed  for  which  the  Administration  was  not 
prepared.  The  following  letter  was  written  by  the 
Judge  to  his  wife  a  few  days  later :  — 

WASHINGTON,  Dec.  19, 1869. 
I  hope  to  see  you  this  week  —  that 's  the  great 
fact  in  human  existence.  But  aside  from  that 
cheerful  and  delightful  outlook,  I  am  not  having 
a  very  agreeable  time  just  at  present ;  the  Senate 
does  not  act  on  my  nomination,  and  there  is  said 
to  be  some  prospect  that  they  will  not  confirm  it. 
This  I  do  not  think  probable,  but,  as  they  adjourn 
for  a  fortnight  on  Wednesday  next,  they  may 
leave  it  undecided,  which  leaves  me  in  a  condition 
rather  afloat,  and  reminding  me  considerably  of 


THE  ATTORNEY-GENERALSHIP     189 

my  sensations  at  the  time  of  the  Chief  Justice 
business  two  years  ago,  —  or  perhaps  still  more  of 
Judge  Thomas's,  —  because  then  the  newspapers 
were  pitching  in  on  my  side,  and  now  my  friends 
the  newspaper  correspondents  are  taking  their 
little  revenges  for  my  persistent  omission  to  recog 
nize  their  existence  heretofore.  There  is,  besides, 
a  slight  controversy  which  the  committee  are 
trying  to  get  up  with  the  President,  mainly,  I 
think,  with  reference  to  me,  which  I  have  to  take 
my  share  of.  So  that  things  are  not  altogether 
lovely.  On  the  other  hand,  I  am  pretty  well  (intend 
to  leave  off  smoking!),1  and  have  many  active  and 
excellent  friends.  So  life  is  not  exactly  a  burden, 
but  if  things  work  so  that  I  cannot  spend  the 
next  month  at  home,  I  shall  be  disgusted. 

On  December  22,  the  nomination  came  up  for 
action  in  the  Senate  and  the  following  letters 
show  what  happened,  and  how  the  Senate's  act 
was  regarded  by  the  Administration. 

WASHINGTON,  Dec.  25,  1869. 
HON.  E.  R.  HOAR, 

DEAR  SIR,  —  I  write  simply  to  say  that  your 
friends  for  more  than  four  hours  battled  for  you, 
that  all  was  said  and  done  that  could  be.  When  it 
was  clearly  seen  that  a  majority  had  determined 

1  The  Judge  was  very  much  given  to  leaving  off  smoking  and 
then  resuming  it,  until  his  doctor  said  to  him:  "Judge,  if  you  will 
either  smoke  or  not  smoke,  I  can  prescribe  for  you,  but  not  other 
wise." 


190      EBENEZER  ROCKWOOD  HOAR 

on  a  vote  of  rejection,  we  struggled  for  more  than 
two  hours  against  coming  to  a  vote,  before  we 
secured  an  adjournment.  Never  have  I  seen  such 
action  in  the  Senate.  Certain  senators  seemed  de 
termined  on  a  vote  of  rejection.  They  claimed  to 
have  a  majority  of  fifteen,  and  I  think  they 
thought  they  would  not  only  defeat  your  nomina 
tion,  but  by  so  doing  could  drive  you  from  the 
Cabinet.  That  was  the  purpose  of  some  engaged 
in  the  proceedings  against  you. 

They  have  a  majority  in  the  Senate  that  can 
not  be  overcome.  But  you  have  not  only  the  con 
fidence  of  the  President,  but  his  personal  regard, 
and  I  hope  you  will  not  let  these  senators  drive 
you  from  the  position  you  hold  in  the  govern 
ment.  The  President  is  for  you,  our  good  old  state 
is  for  you,  and  you  had  a  true  minority  in  the 
Senate  who  will  stand  by  you. 
Yours  truly 

HENRY  WILSON. 

DEPARTMENT  OF  THE  INTERIOR, 
WASHINGTON,  23  Dec.,  1869. 

MY  DEAR  JUDGE,  —  I  have  just  come  from  the 
President,  with  whom  I  have  been  discussing  the 
action  of  the  Senate  last  night  upon  your  nomina 
tion,  and  the  course  proper  for  both  him  and  you 
to  pursue.  Robeson  and  Belknap  met  me  there, 
and  I  want  first  of  all  to  assure  you  that  a  com 
mon  indignation  fired  us  all.  Field  came  in  on  a 


THE  ATTORNEY-GENERALSHIP     191 

matter  of  business,  and  I  asked  him  to  telegraph 
you  to  maintain  a  "  masterly  inactivity  "  until  you 
should  hear  from  us.  We  feared  that  in  your  first 
flush  of  feeling  you  might  commit  yourself  to 
some  cause  or  course  of  action  which  you  would 
not  follow,  if  fully  advised  of  the  facts,  and  of  the 
feelings  of  the  President  and  your  associates  in 
the  Cabinet. 

First,  as  to  the  facts :  The  very  men  who 
wanted  the  President  to  "  lump  "  you  and  Stan- 
ton's  nomination,  were  the  leaders  in  a  most  per 
sistent  determination  to  force  a  rejection.  They 
counted  on  the  Democrats  of  course,  and  with 
reason.  To  these  they  added  all  the  Southern  sen 
ators  except  Warner,  on  the  plea  that  the  South 
should  claim  the  appointment.  A  few  of  the 
Northern  Republicans  then  sufficed  to  make  a 
majority.  Trumbull.  seems  to  have  supported  you 
and  to  have  dissented  from  the  remainder  of  his 
committee.  This  was  a  gratifying  surprise  to  me. 
The  opposition,  it  is  said,  was  evidently  organized 
and  acting  in  concert.  They  were  determined  to 
be  content  with  nothing  but  a  prompt  rejection, 
and  did  not  even  consent  to  a  motion  to  table  the 
business,  after  four  hours  exciting  struggle,  until 
Cattell  told  them  he  would  make  dilatory  motions 
all  night  before  he  would  permit  such  an  outrage. 
The  result  was  the  tabling  of  the  question,  with 
(as  the  opposition  claim)  an  understanding  that  it 
shall  not  be  again  taken  up. 


192      EBENEZER  ROCKWOOD   HOAR 

I  have  advised  the  President  that  he  shall  leave 
the  total  responsibility  with  the  Senate,  and  ut 
terly  refuse  to  withdraw  the  nomination.  He  can 
not  do  the  latter  without  losing  by  it.  He  feels 
that  he  cannot  make  a  better  nomination,  and  we 
are  sure  that  to  stand  squarely  by  what  he  has 
done  is  best  for  him,  his  administration  and  you. 
By  so  doing  he  will  show  his  unswerving  faith  in 
you  and  give  the  weight  of  his  personal  character 
to  sustain  you  under  the  insult  put  upon  you. 
Robeson  and  Belknap  fully  and  heartily  agreed 
with  this,  and  the  President  said  it  precisely  indi 
cated  his  own  feelings.  I  told  him  I  was  going  to 
write  you,  and  he  bade  me  say  to  you  that  his  sen 
timent  was  what  I  have  expressed  and  that,  even 
if  the  Senate  shall  finally  reject,  he  is  assured 
that  they  and  the  country  will  soon  learn  that 
a  great  wrong  and  a  great  error  has  been  com 
mitted.  In  no  event  must  you  think  of  abandon 
ing  the  Cabinet,  for  the  Attorney-General's  office  is 
the  TTOV  a-TO)  from  which  to  bring  an  ultimate  suc 
cess  and  victory  out  of  this  temporary  rebuff. 

The  Cabinet  officers  I  have  named  joined  in 
sending  you  messages  of  good  cheer.  Judge  Po 
land  and  General  Garfield,  who  have  been  in  since 
I  began  writing,  have  done  the  same,  expressing 
their  shame  and  dissatisfaction  with  what  the 
Senate  has  done.  I  shall  expect  to  hear  the  voice 
of  New  England  in  some  emphatic  form  before 
the  holidays  are  over,  and  I  shall  believe  that  the 


THE  ATTORNEY-GENERALSHIP     193 

Senate  will  come  back  on  the  10th  of  January 
with  a  consciousness  of  their  own  blunder.  Sooner 
or  later  time  will  set  this  even,  and  you  must  not 
allow  one  moment  of  depression  over  it.  It  is 
rather  a  challenge  to  prove  your  mettle,  and  I  re 
member  with  satisfaction  what  you  said  to  me 
about  keeping  your  colors  flying.  I  often  wish  my 
friends  might  be  spared  from  some  of  the  bitter 
nesses  which  every  man  has  to  taste  who  will  not 
sneak  through  the  world  without  a  principle  or  a 
will  of  his  own,  but  next  to  that  exemption  from 
pain,  and  hardly  second  to  it,  is  my  wish  that  they 
may  make  a  good  fight  of  it. 

God  bless  you,  my  dear  Judge,  and  give  to  you 
and  yours  both  the  Merry  Christmas  and  the 
Happy  New  Year  before  your  return ;  for  you 
have  the  right  to  look  down  from  a  calm  and 
happy  upper  world  of  your  own  upon  the  petti 
nesses  of  those  who  have  vainly  thought  to  do  you 
a  mischief. 

Give  my  best  wishes  and  regards  to  Mrs.  Hoar 
and  to  Sam,  and  believe  me 

Always  truly  yours, 

J.  D.  Cox. 
HON.  E.  R.  HOAR. 

It  was  after  this  action  of  the  Senate,  and  after 
the  Judge  had  come  home  for  Christmas,  that  he 
received  the  response  of  his  friends.  Lowell  wrote, 
the  day  before  Christmas :  "  Don't  let  your  nom- 


194      EBENEZER  ROCKWOOD  HOAR 

ination  be  withdrawn.  Let  the  responsibility  lie 
with  the  knaves  who  hate  you  for  your  impregna 
bility,  and  have  n't  the  courage  to  say  so.  Give 
'em  the  additional  pang  of  being  obliged  to  vote. 
It  is  all  an  honor  to  you.  ...  I  am  honestly  glad 
of  anything  that  will  keep  you  in  the  Cabinet, 
though  in  thinking  it  over  I  persuaded  myself 
that  you  might  have  helped  forward  the  cause  of 
loyalty  and  common  sense  in  Georgia.  However  I 
am  proud  of  your  rejection  on  such  grounds.  .  .  . 
May  your  Christmas  turkey  have  as  many  good 
qualities  as  yourself,  though  of  less  firm  quality. 
.  .  .  You  have  deserved  well  of  the  Republic, 
which  is  better  than  being  paid  well  by  it." 

On  the  same  day  Charles  Francis  Adams,  Jr., 
wrote :  — 

DEAR  JUDGE,  —  I  cannot  finish  up  work  for 
Christmas  without  congratulating  you  and  the 
country  on  the  action  of  the  Senate  on  Wednes 
day.  Of  all  comforting  things  the  most  comfort 
ing  must  be  to  feel  that  one  has  a  mission  to  per 
form,  —  that  all  responsibility  and  doubt  are  gone, 
and  that  to  retreat  is  impossible.  Such,  I  presume, 
is  your  position  now.  A  great  mission  has  been 
forced  upon  you :  nothing  less  than  to  return  the 
Senate  of  the  United  States  to  its  proper  func 
tions  in  the  system  of  government.  I  am  very 
glad  the  job  has  fallen  into  such  good  hands,  and 
I  wish  you  a  merry  Christmas  at  Concord  as  you 


THE  ATTORNEY-GENERALSHIP     195 

debate  on  the  best  way  of  beginning  your  work. 
What  was  the  Greek  name  for  the  thirty  tyrants 
who  undertook  to  rule  Athens  ?  Who  was  it  who 
overthrew  them  ?  Much  good  fortune  has  of  late 
been  thrust  upon  you,  and  now  I  nourish  a  fond 
hope  that  justice  will  be  done  to  all. 
Very  sincerely,  etc., 

CHARLES  F.  ADAMS,  JR. 
HON.  E.  R.  HOAR,  Concord. 

On  Christmas  Day  Judge  Hoar  wrote  his  bro 
ther  :  - 

"  There  is  nothing  .  .  .  which  on  my  account 
need  give  you  pain  or  concern  —  I  have  heard 
from  the  President  and  the  Cabinet,  and  my  course 
is  plain  enough. 

"  My  nomination  will  not  be  withdrawn,  and  I 
shall  endeavor  to  have  its  rejection  upon  a  yea 
and  nay  vote.  I  hope  that  the  men  of  our  party 
who  vote  against  it  will  live  to  regret  doing  so, 
not  for  any  harm  it  will  do  them,  but  from  an 
altered  opinion. 

"  The  '  ugliness '  of  which  you  speak  looks  worse 
from  the  inside  at  Washington  than  from  the  out 
side,  and  I  mean  at  some  time  or  other  to  have  the 
whole  thing  not  to  be  sorry  for." 

Three  days  later,  the  Judge  wrote  again  to  his 
brother :  - 

"  My  public  relations  of  course  now  depend  upon 
the  firmness  and  clear-sightedness  of  the  President. 


196      EBENEZER  ROCKWOOD  HOAR 

I  have  no  doubt  of  his  thorough  friendship ;  I  only 
hope  that  he  will  not  allow  himself  to  be  entrapped 
into  any  pledges  or  promises  to  those  fellows,  of 
any  kind,  especially  as  to  nominating  a  judge 
from  the  Rebel  States  on  any  terms.  I  think  I  see 
his  way  clear  out  of  the  difficulty,  if  he  keeps  his 
own  counsels,  and  that  they  must  break  if  he  does 
not.  When  I  am  rejected,  he  can  nominate  fit 
Northern  men  in  succession  as  long  as  the  stock 
holds  out,  and  every  one  that  is  rejected  makes  a 
new  set  of  enemies  to  the  men  who  do  it,  and 
they  can't  stand  it.  The  line  will  break  some 
where.  As  to  'saying  die/  don't  you  have  the 
least  anxiety  about  me.  As  soon  as  I  get  my  per 
sonal  relation  to  the  question  eliminated,  I  will 
try  to  furnish  a  specimen  of  cheerful  activity  that 
will  refresh  you  to  witness.  I  may  even  go  so  far 
as  to  leave  off  smoking  and  bad  manners." 

Nor  shall  a  passage  from  a  letter  of  his  sister 
Elizabeth  be  omitted,  not  only  because  it  breathes 
the  spirit  of  the  family,  but  for  its  own  beauty. 
Writing  on  January  2,  she  said :  — 

"  Tell  my  dear  brother  Frisbie  to  keep  a  good 
heart,  and  hold  up  the  hands  of  his  brother  and 
encourage  his  heart,  and  fret  not  himself  because 
of  evil-doers,  but  remember  that  wherever  his 
brother  Rockwood  is,  there  is  an  honest,  able  and 
faithful  worker,  whose  work  will  praise  him  and 
of  whom  his  whole  kith  and  kin  have  right  to  be 
proud  and  glad  — 


THE  ATTORNEY-GENERALSHIP     197 

'  Whatever  record  leap  to  light, 
He  never  shall  be  shamed/  " 

In  spite  of  great  pressure,  President  Grant  would 
not  withdraw  the  nomination,  and  forced  the  re 
sponsibility  on  the  Senate,  which  on  February  3, 
1870,  rejected  the  nomination.  Senator  Hoar  wrote 
afterward : — 

"The  person  who  was  chiefly  responsible  for 
Judge  Hoar's  defeat  was  Mr.  George  F.  Edmunds 
of  Vermont.  He  pretended  that  his  chief  objection 
was  that  Judge  Hoar  did  not  live  in  the  circuit  to 
which  the  judge  was  to  be  assigned  for  duty.  I 
do  not  think  he  deceived  himself  or  anybody  else 
by  that  statement.  He  told  Rockwood  that  all  ob 
jection  to  his  confirmation  would  be  waived,  if  he 
would  agree  to  take  up  his  residence  in  the  South 
ern  Circuit ;  to  which  the  Judge  replied  that  he 
would  not  move  his  boarding-house  across  the 
street  for  any  such  reason." 

Charles  Francis  Adams  relates  that  some  time 
afterward  the  Judge's  friends  were  chaffing  him  a 
little  over  the  table  of  the  Saturday  Club  upon  his 
alleged  rough  dealings  and  sharp  tongue.  The 
Judge  took  their  wit  good-humoredly,  and  re 
peated  what  Senator  Cameron  said  about  the  Sen 
ate's  rejection :  "  What  could  you  expect  for  a 
man  who  had  snubbed  seventy  senators?"  Mr. 
Adams  says :  — 

"  That  way  of  putting  it  undoubtedly  had  no  little 
basis  of  truth,"  and  explains  the  judge's  severity  to 


198      EBENEZER  ROCKWOOD  HOAR 

office-seekers  and  their  patrons  by  saying :  "  His 
sense  of  humor  did  not  always  have  time  to 
come  to  his  rescue,  and  it  was  commonly  alleged 
of  him  that,  in  political  parlance,  '  he  could  not 
see  things';  the  real  fact  being  that,  with  his 
rugged  honesty  and  keen  eye  for  pretence  and 
jobbery,  he  saw  things  only  too  clearly.  And  so, 
first  and  last,  he  snubbed  seventy  senators  —  all 
there  were  —  and  they,  after  their  kind,  'got  even 
with  him/  "  Mr.  Adams  adds :  "  He  bore  defeat 
as  if  it  had  been  a  laurel  crown." 

But  by  no  means  all  the  seventy  were  hostile. 
As  appears  above,  many  of  the  best  made  a  hard 
fight  for  him.  Senator  Hoar  says  that  Chandler  of 
Michigan,  one  of  the  most  bitter  opponents,  after 
wards  came  to  appreciate  the  Judge,  and  expressed 
his  regret. 

Mr.  Justice  Grier  had  sent  in  his  resignation 
from  the  Supreme  Bench  early  in  December,  to 
take  effect  on  February  1,  1870,  and  Edwin  M. 
Stanton  was  nominated  to  succeed  him  on  Decem 
ber  20.  The  nomination  was  confirmed,  but  Stan- 
ton  died  on  December  24,  and  his  death,  with  the 
rejection  of  Judge  Hoar's  nomination,  left  two 
vacancies  on  the  bench.  On  February  7,  Mr.  Jus 
tice  Strong  and  Mr.  Justice  Bradley  were  nomi 
nated  to  these  positions,  and  on  the  same  day  the 
Supreme  Court  decided  the  case  of  Hepburn  vs. 
Griswold,  in  which  it  held  that  the  Legal-Tender 
Act  was  unconstitutional. 


THE  ATTORNEY-GENERALSHIP     199 

This  judgment  was  rendered  by  a  divided  court ; 
and  after  the  appointment  of  Justices  Strong  and 
Bradley  the  same  question  was  reargued,  and 
Hepburn  vs.  Griswold  was  overruled.  This  result 
was  reached  by  the  votes  of  the  new  justices,  and 
upon  these  facts  the  charge  was  made,  and  from 
time  to  time  is  repeated,  that  Judge  Hoar  "  packed  " 
the  Supreme  Court  in  order  to  obtain  a  reversal  of 
the  Legal-Tender  decision.  This  charge  was  denied 
and  is  absolutely  refuted  by  the  facts  in  the  case, 
as  was  shown  by  Senator  Hoar  in  a  letter  to  the 
Boston  "Herald,"  subsequently  printed  in  pam 
phlet  form.1  As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  appoint 
ments  were  decided  upon  and  actually  sent  to  the 
Senate  before  the  judgment  in  Hepburn  vs.  Gris 
wold  was  announced.  The  Supreme  Court  and  the 
Senate  both  met  at  12  M.  on  February  7,  and  the 
opinions  of  the  justices  in  this  and  other  cases 
were  read  shortly  after  that  hour.  The  nomina 
tions  of  Justices  Strong  and  Bradley  had  been 
signed  by  President  Grant,  and  reached  the  Senate 
a  few  minutes  after  twelve  o'clock.  Both  decision 
and  nominations  were  announced  to  the  public  in 
the  evening  papers  of  that  day. 

The  decision  against  the  constitutionality  of  the 
Legal-Tender  Act  was  most  unexpected,  for  it  was 

1  The  charge  against  President  Grant  and  Attorney-General  Hoar 
of  packing  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States,  to  secure  the  re 
versal  of  the  Legal-Tender  Decision  by  the  appointment  of  Judges 
Bradley  and  Strong,  refuted.  —  Worcester,  Mass.,  Press  of  Charles 
Hamilton,  1896. 


200      EBENEZER  ROCKWOOD  HOAR 

generally  supposed  that  Chief  Justice  Chase  would 
support  it,  since,  while  Secretary  of  the  Treasury, 
he  was  the  author  of  the  law  and  largely  responsi 
ble  for  its  passage ;  but  no  information  as  to  the 
decision  had  reached  the  Cabinet  or  Judge  Hoar 
before  it  was  given.  Mr.  Justice  Bradley  was  re 
commended  by  the  whole  bench  and  bar  of  New 
Jersey,  without  distinction  of  party,  and,  it  is  said, 
also  by  his  predecessor,  Mr.  Justice  Grier.  Mr. 
Justice  Strong  had  recently  left  the  Supreme 
Bench  of  Pennsylvania  with  a  great  judicial  repu 
tation,  and  was  the  leader  of  his  profession  in 
that  state.  Both  were  admirable  appointments, 
and  it  is  wholly  unnecessary  to  seek  any  reason  for 
their  selection  other  than  their  eminent  fitness, 
which  was  demonstrated  by  their  whole  subsequent 
conduct  on  the  bench.  President  Grant  and  Judge 
Hoar's  associates  in  the  Cabinet,  Mr.  Fish,  Gov 
ernor  Cox  and  Governor  Boutwell,  all  denied  that, 
when  the  appointments  were  considered  at  Cabinet 
meetings,  there  was  any  reference  to  the  Legal- 
Tender  question  or  to  the  opinion  of  the  candi 
dates  upon  it.  President  Grant  said  that  he  had  no 
knowledge  of  the  decision,  or  any  purpose  in  re 
gard  to  it,  when  the  appointments  were  made. 
,  Governor  Cox's  statement  may  well  be  quoted : — 
"I  can  recall  some  discussion  of  the  character 
and  qualities  of  Judges  Strong  and  Bradley  among 
members  of  the  Cabinet,  but  not  a  single  word  of 
reference  to  their  opinions  on  the  Legal-Tender 


THE  ATTORNEY-GENERALSHIP     201 

question,  or  to  any  case  pending  or  likely  to  be 
pending  in  the  Supreme  Court.  Nothing  could  be 
plainer  than  that  the  Attorney-General  was  ear 
nestly  determined  to  recommend  only  such  men  as 
combined  the  qualities  of  able  lawyers  with  those 
of  perfectly  pure,  single-minded  and  upright  citi 
zens.  When  the  nominations  were  made,  we  felt 
that  just  such  men  had  been  selected." 

Governor  Cox  adds  that  he  would  have  been 
"  quick  to  notice  anything  inconsistent  with  this 
'  good  purpose/  "  because  his  personal  opinion  was 
in  accord  with  the  decision  in  Hepburn  vs.  Gris- 
wold. 

Governor  Boutwell  says  "  The  legal-tender  con 
troversy  was  not  spoken  of,  nor  in  any  manner 
referred  to  by  the  President  or  by  any  member 
of  the  Cabinet." 

When,  finally,  it  is  said,  that  to  this  charge, 
originating  in  the  suspicion  of  some  unknown 
newspaper  writer,  and  repeated  by  General  But 
ler,  a  known  witness  whose  character  and  motives 
were  never  in  doubt,  Judge  Hoar  himself  re 
plied  that  it  was  "utterly  untrue,"  in  a  letter 
fully  stating  all  the  facts,  we  may  safely  assume 
that  the  charge  was  as  baseless  as  it  was  scan 
dalous.  It  was  a  successor  of  Judge  Hoar  in 
the  office  of  Attorney-General,  Wayne  MacVeagh 
of  Pennsylvania,  who  concluded  a  reply  to  Gen 
eral  Butler  some  years  later  with  the  scathing 
words :  "  I  will  not  even  take  the  trouble  to  deny 


202      EBENEZER  ROCKWOOD  HOAR 

any  new  falsehoods  you  may  think  it  to  your  ad 
vantage  to  invent  about  me,  for  those  who  know 
me  well  will  not  believe  anything  you  say  against 
me,  and  those  who  know  you  of  course  will  not 
believe  anything  you  say  against  anybody  "  ;  and 
the  statement  needs  no  qualification  as  between 
Judge  Hoar  and  the  same  accuser. 

Judge  Hoar  endeavored  to  have  the  Legal-Ten 
der  question  reargued  in  the  case  of  Latham  vs. 
The  United  States  (9  Wallace,  145),  but  the  ap 
pellants  withdrew  their  appeal,  and  he  therefore 
did  not  succeed.  The  question  was  however  ar 
gued  by  his  successor,  Mr.  Akerman,  the  next 
winter,  and  the  decision  in  Hepburn  vs.  Griswold 
was  reversed.1 

Judge  Hoar  did  not  allow  himself  to  be  dis 
turbed  by  the  defeat  of  his  nomination,  but  se 
renely  continued  his  work  as  Attorney-General,  as 
his  correspondence  shows. 

On  the  very  day  when  Justices  Strong  and 
Bradley  were  nominated,  we  find  him  writing  to 
Lowell :  — 

MY  DEAR  JAMES,  —  I  hear  you  are  expected  to 
make  a  visit  in  Washington.  .  .  .  When  may  I  ex 
pect  you,  and  how  long  will  you  stay  ?  I  want  you 
to  see  some  people  and  want  some  people  to  see 
you,  so  let  me  know  as  soon  as  you  can. 

The  visit  was  a  success  as  the  next  letter 
shows :  — 

1  Knox  PS.  Lee,  Parker  vs.  Davis,  12  Wall.  457. 


THE  ATTORNEY-GENERALSHIP     203 

WASHINGTON,  Feb.  27,  1870. 
MY  DEAR  JAMES,  —  I  trust  you  survived  your 
dissipation,  and  got  home  with  Mrs.  Lowell  un 
scathed.  Your  coming  did  me  a  great  deal  of 
good;  and  our  friend  Ulysses  (or  "Ulyss,"  as 
Mrs.  G.  calls  him  sometimes)  had  a  revelation 
the  day  after  you  left.  He  went  to  an  evening 
party,  where,  among  the  entertainments  provided, 
was  reading  by  an  adept  in  that  art.  The  reader 
had,  as  one  of  his  selections,  one  of  the  later 
"  Biglow  Papers,"  and,  as  I  understand,  read  it 
very  well.  The  President  spoke  to  me  about  it  the 
next  day ;  said  that  he  had  never  read  or  heard 
one  of  them  before,  but  that  it  was  the  most  per 
fect  statement  of  the  whole  doctrine  of  recon 
struction  that  he  had  ever  met  with.  He  seemed 
much  impressed  ;  and  the  next  night  gave  the 
evidence  which  you  as  an  author  will  recognize  as 
the  final  test  of  sincerity,  wanting  to  hear  it 
again,  for  he  procured  the  reader  to  attend  at  the 
state  dinner  at  the  White  House,  and  read  it  there 
after  dinner. 

In  writing  on  March  8,  to  thank  Mr.  Emerson 
for  a  copy  of  his  "  new  book  " 1  Judge  Hoar  said : 
"  I  feel  a  certain  guilt  in  thinking  of  it,  as  at  least 
an  hour  was  given  this  morning  to  looking  it  over 
which  ought  to  have  been  devoted  to  something 
worse.  But  I  have  found  in  life  that  virtue  is  not 
the  only  thing  which  is  its  own  reward." 

i  Society  and  Solitude. 


204      EBENEZER  ROCKWOOD   HOAR 

Mr.  Forbes,  a  private  citizen,  engaged  first  in 
the  China  trade,  and  later  in  the  development  of 
our  Western  states  by  pushing  railroads  to  the 
great  corn-land  on  both  sides  of  the  Mississippi, 
though  never  holding  office  or  appearing  in  the 
newspapers,  had  been,  with  counsel,  activity,  quick 
resource  and  generous  expenditure,  a  pillar  of 
state  during  the  war,  and  now  that  sound  finance, 
the  safety  of  American  shipping,  and  sane  recon 
struction  policies  were  the  issues,  his  counsels 
were  still  valued.  Judge  Hoar,  acknowledging  a 
letter  from  him  on  the  Alabama  Claims,  written  in 
March,  1870,  says  :  — 

"  I  think  the  extract  from  your  correspondent 
capital  in  its  way,  well  worth  Mr.  Fish's  attention, 
as  well  as  your  letter  in  reply.  I  shall  show  both 
to  him  and  to  the  President  at  the  first  oppor 
tunity  ;  but,  what  with  Tennessee,  Georgia,  cur 
rency  funding,  and  tariff,  there  has  been  little 
said  or  thought  about  Alabama  Claims  for  the  last 
few  days  among  us  here. 

"Strictly  in  confidence  between  ourselves,  I  wish 
Sumner  had  the  faculty  of  working  on  a  level 
with  other  human  beings  a  little  more,  and  did 
not  find  it  necessary  to  his  self-respect  and  self- 
estimation  to  be  quite  so  near  President,  Secretary 
of  State,  Congress,  and  public  instructor  and  guide, 
all  rolled  into  one.  It  hurts  his  power  for  good, 
and  I  see  trouble  from  it  brewing.  But  there  is 
no  touching  him  in  a  rational  way,  and  we  must 


THE  ATTORNEY-GENERALSHIP     205 

take  him  for  what  he  is,  and  '  let  him  gang  his 
ain  magnificent  gait/  after  the  nature  of  the  ani 
mal.  He  is  invaluable  for  many  things. 

"  I  have  at  last  won  the  fight  on  the  judges,  and 
except  our  friend  P.  .  .  (who  I  think  will  come 
yet),  have  secured  the  man  I  wanted  in  every 
case,  and  feel  that  a  good  service  to  the  country 
has  been  done.  My  own  personal  affair  is  trifling 
in  comparison,  and  I  guess  it  is  just  as  well  it  is. 

"Your  currency  '  squib '  contains  sense  and 
morals,  but  Chase's  decision  on  legal  tenders  is 
not  constitution,  nor  right  reason,  nor  safe  doc 
trine  for  the  country  in  its  times  of  peril,  in  my 
opinion,  and  I  shall  not  stand  it  if  I  can  help  it." 

The  following  letter  belongs  to  this  period  and 
is  so  characteristic  that  it  is  inserted  here. 

WASHINGTON,  Fast  Day,  1870,  6  P.  M. 
MY  DEAR  WIFE,  —  I  have  argued  a  case  two 
hours  to-day  —  that 's  instead  of  preaching —  have 
received  a  small  fee  for  it  —  it  being  for  a  private 
client  —  and  so  send  you  $100  —  that 's  for  char 
ity —  which  "begins  at  home  "--and  have  gone 
without  my  dinner  so  far  —  which  will  do  for 
the  fasting.  —  The  humiliation  is  in  not  having 
time  to  write  you  a  longer  letter — and  the  prayer 
•is  for  the  welfare  and  happiness  of  all  the  distant 
dear  ones,  from 

Yours  affectionately, 

E.  R.  HOAR. 


206      EBENEZER  ROCKWOOD   HOAR 

His  position  in  the  Cabinet  had  never  been  per 
fectly  assured  for  the  reasons  which  have  been 
pointed  out,  and  events  were  now  happening 
which  were  soon  to  terminate  his  connection  with 
the  Administration. 

Very  soon  after  his  inauguration  President  Grant 
was  found  to  entertain  the  idea  of  adding  territory 
in  the  West  Indies  to  the  possessions  of  the  United 
States.  Certain  naval,  military,  and  commercial 
influences,  chronically  working  and  at  last  suc 
ceeding  some  thirty  years  later,  were  urging  this 
policy,  and  after  the  plan  of  recognizing  the  in 
surgents  in  Cuba  had  failed,  the  President's  at 
tention  was  directed  to  San  Domingo.  During  the 
summer  and  autumn  of  1869  he  sent  his  secre 
tary,  Orville  E.  Babcock,  to  investigate  conditions 
on  this  island,  who  on  September  4  executed  a 
procotol,  and  in  December  a  treaty  for  the  annex 
ation  of  San  Domingo,  and  another  for  the  lease 
of  Samana  Bay. 

The  President  set  his  heart  upon  the  ratification 
of  these  treaties,  but  Senator  Sumner  opposed  it, 
and  the  Committee  on  Foreign  Relations  reported 
against  them  on  March  15, 1870.  Debate  on  them 
began  on  the  24th  and  continued  for  some  weeks, 
when  the  Senate  laid  them  aside  and  did  not  take 
them  up  again  until  June  29.  During  this  period 
the  President  became  much  inflamed  against  Mr. 
Sumner,  and  very  anxious  to  secure  votes  enough 
in  the  Senate  to  ratify  the  treaties.  To  accomplish 


THE  ATTORNEY-GENERALSHIP     207 

his  end  he  was  willing  to  exert  all  the  powers  at 
his  command,  and  the  senators  from  the  Southern 
states,  who  were  more  pliable  than  some  of  their 
Northern  colleagues  or  more  in  sympathy  with  the 
annexation,  were  hungry  for  patronage.  On  June 
23,  Judge  Hoar  resigned  the  office  of  Attorney- 
General,  and  his  colleague  Governor  Cox,  the 
Secretary  of  the  Interior,  tells  the  story  of  his 
resignation. 

The  Judge,  writing  of  Cox,  when  they  were 
fellow  members  of  the  Cabinet,  said,  "  He  is  one 
of  the  truest  and  best  of  friends,  as  well  as  one 
of  the  noblest  men  in  the  country,  which  Grant 
knows  as  well  as  I,"  and  he  is  so  unimpeachable 
a  witness  that  the  leading  incident  is  given  here 
in  his  words: 1- 

"When  Judge  Hoar's  nomination  to  the  bench 
had  been  defeated  in  the  winter,  he  again  sent 
word  by  closest  friends  that  his  resignation  would 
be  at  the  President's  disposal ;  but  General  Grant 
saw  nothing  to  make  a  change  in  their  relations 
desirable,  and  the  subject  was  dropped,  definitely 
as  I  supposed.  Delicacy  had  prompted  the  Judge 
thus  to  speak  through  others,  so  that  no  feeling  of 
personal  regard  might  make  the  President  hesi 
tate  to  express  his  wish.  More  than  four  months 
had  elapsed,  and  the  Attorney-General,  like  the 
other  members  of  the  Administration,  had  devoted 

1  "How  Judge  Hoar    ceased  to  be  Attorney-General,"  The 
Atlantic  Monthly,  August,  1895. 


208      EBENEZER  ROCKWOOD  HOAR 

himself  to  the  work  of  his  own  office,  forgetting,  as 
far  as  possible,  including  San  Domingo,  what  did 
not  directly  affect  his  own  responsibilities." 

Governor  Cox  then  tells  how,  on  an  evening  in 
June,  he  read  in  the  New  York  "  Times  "  that  the 
Attorney-General  had  given  in  his  resignation, 
and  the  President  had  accepted  it.  He  could  hardly 
trust  his  eyes,  knowing  that  nothing  had  been 
further  from  Judge  Hoar's  thoughts  but  a  day  or 
two  before,  and  no  suggestion  of  such  a  thing  had 
come  from  others.  "That  such  changes  in  the 
Administration  could  be  made  without  announce 
ment  to  its  members,  leaving  them  to  learn  it  from 
the  public  press,  was  incredible."  He  started  for 
the  Judge's  lodgings,  and  on  the  way  was  stopped 
by  Senator  Henry  Wilson,  equally  amazed. 

"Reaching  the  Attorney-General's  lodgings,  I 
opened  the  conversation  almost  in  the  words  Sen 
ator  Wilson  had  used  to  me  :  '  Well,  Judge,  what 
does  this  mean ? '  'Sit  down/  he  said,  ' and  I  will 
tell  you/  The  recollection  of  what  he  said  is  so 
vivid  that  I  may  safely  say  that  I  give  it  in  his 
own  words :  - 

"'I  was  sitting  in  my  office  yesterday  morning, 
attending  to  routine  business,  with  no  more 
thoughts  of  what  was  to  come  than  you  had  at 
that  moment,  when  a  messenger  entered  with  a 
letter  from  the  President.  Opening  it,  I  was 
amazed  to  read  a  naked  statement  that  he  found 
himself  under  the  necessity  of  asking  for  my  re- 


THE  ATTORNEY-GENERALSHIP     209 

signation.  No  explanation  of  any  kind  was  given, 
or  reason  assigned.  The  request  was  as  curt  and 
as  direct  as  possible.  My  first  thought  was  that 
the  President  had  been  imposed  upon  by  some 
grave  charge  against  me.  A  thunder-clap  could 
not  have  been  more  startling  to  me.  I  sat  for  a 
while  wondering  what  it  could  mean ;  why  there 
had  been  no  warning,  no  reference  to  the  subject 
in  our  almost  daily  conversations.  The  impulse  was 
to  go  and  ask  the  reasons  for  the  demand,  but 
self-respect  would  not  permit  this  and  I  said  to 
myself  that  I  must  let  the  matter  take  its  own 
course  and  not  even  seem  disturbed  about  it.  I 
took  up  my  pen  to  write  the  resignation  and  found 
myself  naturally  framing  some  of  the  conven 
tional  reasons  for  it,  but  I  stopped  and  destroyed 
the  sheet,  saying  to  myself,  "  Since  no  reasons  are 
given  or  suggested  for  the  demand,  it  is  hardly 
honest  to  invent  them  in  the  reply,"  so  I  made 
the  resignation  as  simple  and  unvarnished  as  the 
request  for  it  had  been/  .  .  . 

"  In  the  afternoon,  he  had  occasion  to  submit 
papers  in  some  pardon  cases  to  the  President  and 
went  to  the  Executive  Office  for  that  purpose. 
Meanwhile  the  acceptance  of  the  resignation  had 
been  sent  to  him,  and  this  was  framed  so  as  to 
convey  the  sentiments  of  personal  good-will  and 
high  respect  which  no  one  in  near  relations  to 
them  doubted  that  General  Grant  actually  felt. 
This  letter  was  published  with  the  brief  resigna- 


210      EBENEZER  ROCKWOOD  HOAR 

tion.  The  equally  brief  request  for  the  resignation 
has  never  been  given  to  the  public.  The  omis 
sion,  as  every  one  must  see,  wholly  changes  the 
effect  of  the  correspondence.  On  meeting  Judge 
Hoar,  the  President  enlarged  to  some  extent  upon 
his  personal  confidence  in  him,  and  the  real  regret 
with  which  he  severed  their  relations,  and  now 
frankly  connected  his  own  action  with  the  exi 
gency  in  which  he  found  himself,  and  the  neces 
sity,  to  carry  out  his  purpose,  of  securing  support 
in  the  Senate  from  Southern  Republicans,  who  de 
manded  that  the  Cabinet  place  should  be  filled 
from  the  South.  He  reminded  the  Attorney-Gen 
eral  of  what  had  passed  in  the  winter  relative  to 
his  resigning,  and  said  he  had  assumed  that  this 
connection  of  things  would  be  understood,  without 
further  words.  Judge  Hoar  assured  him  that  the 
explanation  removed  any  painful  impression  that 
might  have  been  made  at  first ;  that  his  only  wish 
was  that  the  Administration  might  be  a  success 
in  every  respect,  and  that  no  personal  interest  of 
his  should  for  a  moment  stand  in  the  way  of  it. 
He  then,  however,  took  the  liberty  of  saying  that 
he  thought  he  knew  the  class  of  men  who  had  de 
sired  his  removal,  and  he  hoped,  for  the  President's 
own  sake,  that  he  had  chosen  his  successor,  since 
otherwise  he  would  be  subjected  to  a  pressure  in 
favor  of  unfit  men  which  might  prove  most  embar 
rassing  to  him.  General  Grant  naively  admitted 
that  he  had  not  yet  given  any  thought  to  that  part 


THE  ATTORNEY-GENERALSHIP     211 

of  the  matter,  but  appeared  to  be  struck  by  the  wis 
dom  of  the  Judge's  suggestion  and  himself  asked 
that  the  whole  matter  remain  strictly  confidential 
till  he  could  reflect  upon  it,  when  he  would  call  it 
up  again." 

A  day  or  two  later,  the  President  asked  Judge 
Hoar  his  opinion  of  Mr.  Akerman  of  Georgia, 
whose  appointment  he  was  considering.  The  Judge 
replied,  "  I  believe  Mr.  Akerman  to  be  an  honest 
man,  sir,  and  a  good  lawyer,"  and  then  added,  "  It 
would  hardly  be  proper  for  me,  Mr.  President,  to 
say  what  should  be  the  standard  of  fitness  for  the 
Attorney-Generalship  of  the  United  States."  He 
then  took  his  leave,  and  Mr.  Akerman's  nomina 
tion  was  immediately  made. 

It  appeared  that  some  "  carpet  bag  "  senators 
told  the  President  that,  while  they  would  gladly 
please  him,  Mr.  Sumner  had  such  controlling  in 
fluence  over  their  colored  constituents  that  it 
was  dangerous  for  them  to  oppose  him  on  the  San 
Domingo  question.  These  were  disappointed  in 
the  help  they  expected  from  the  Administration 
by  way  of  patronage  to  smooth  over  opposition. 
Grant  asked  where  they  found  lack  of  consid 
eration.  They  said  from  the  Attorney-General, 
and  asked  that  he  be  displaced  by  a  Southern 
man. 

Mr.  Cox  tells  that,  at  the  next  meeting  of  the 
Cabinet,  by  the  common  consent  of  the  members, 
no  other  business  was  brought  forward,  as  it  was 


212      EBENEZER  ROCKWOOD   HOAR 

assumed  that  the  President  would  give  some  ac 
count  of  so  unusual  a  procedure  with  no  informa 
tion  on  the  subject  furnished  them,  so  that  they 
first  learned  of  the  change  from  the  newspapers. 
The  President  seemed  surprised  that  no  one 
brought  up  any  business,  waited  a  moment,  and 
said  that  in  the  absence  of  business  the  meeting 
might  as  well  adjourn.  "No  reference  to  the  sub 
ject  of  any  sort  was  ever  made  by  General  Grant 
in  the  presence  of  his  assembled  advisers." 

The  evidence  is  very  strong  that  some  one  about 
the  President,  perhaps  his  secretary,  Babcock,  fur 
nished  a  copy  of  the  Judge's  resignation  and  the 
President's  acceptance  of  it  to  the  New  York 
"  Times,"  that  the  step  might  be  irrevocable,  and 
purposely  withheld  the  letter  requesting  the  re 
signation,  to  lay  the  unpopularity  on  the  wrong 
shoulders. 

Judge  Hoar  remained  in  office  until  his  suc 
cessor  could  be  ready  to  assume  his  duties.  Then 
he  brought  Mr.  Akerman  to  the  Cabinet-room  and 
introduced  him  to  his  colleagues.  He  then  turned 
to  the  President  and  said,  "  Having  presented  my 
successor,  I  will  take  my  leave,  wishing  the  most 
abundant  success  to  your  administration."  Gen 
eral  Grant  answered  that,  although  he  should  not 
see  the  Judge  in  that  place  again,  he  hoped  to 
meet  him  elsewhere  frequently. 

On  leaving  Washington,  the  Judge  wrote  to  the 
President  the  following  letter :  — 


THE  ATTORNEY-GENERALSHIP     213 

WASHINGTON,  July  7, 1870. 

MY  DEAR  SIR,  —  In  terminating  our  official  re 
lation,  I  cannot  forbear  to  express  to  you  the  feel 
ings  of  personal  regard  and  affection  to  which  it 
has  given  birth.  Since  I  have  been  a  member  of 
your  Cabinet,  I  have  never  heard  at  any  meeting 
a  suggestion  in  regard  to  any  public  measure  ex 
cept  a  desire  to  promote  the  public  welfare.  Meet 
ing  as  comparative  strangers,  we  have  been  in  our 
intercourse  and  relations  almost  a  band  of  brothers. 
That  your  chief  motive  of  action  was  the  desire 
to  deserve  well  of  your  countrymen  by  faithful 
public  service,  I  believed  when  you  first  invited 
me  to  act  as  one  of  your  advisers,  and  the  belief 
has  been  strengthened  and  confirmed  by  all  that 
I  have  since  seen  and  known. 

For  the  honor  which  you  gave  in  the  selec 
tion  to  a  place  in  the  government,  I  desire  to  thank 
you.  I  have  endeavored  to  repay  it  by  faithful 
and  honest  counsel,  and  am  sure  that  in  parting, 
I  leave  no  one  behind  me  who  has  a  more  sincere 
wish  for  your  success,  honor  and  happiness  than 

Your  friend, 

E.  R.  HOAR. 
U.  S.  GRANT, 

President. 

Sincerely  anxious  that  Grant's  administration 
should  be  a  success,  Judge  Hoar  never  made  pub 
lic  the  full  story  of  his  resignation,  and  urged  his 


214      EBENEZER  ROCKWOOD   HOAR 

friends  to  ignore  everything  that  was  personal  to 
himself.  Only  after  his  death  did  his  colleague 
tell  the  story  of  his  magnanimity.  His  friend  Mr. 
Emerson  wrote  in  his  journal  of  those  days  :  "  I 
notice  that  they  who  drink  for  some  time  the  Po 
tomac  water,  lose  their  relish  for  the  water  of  the 
Charles  River,  the  Merrimac  and  the  Connecticut. 
But  I  think  the  public  health  requires  that  the 
Potomac  water  should  be  corrected  by  copious  in 
fusions  of  these  provincial  streams.  Rockwood 
Hoar  retains  his  relish  for  the  Musketaquid." 

To  join  his  family,  and  see  his  home  and  beau 
tiful  garden  by  that  stream  must  have  been  a 
blessed  change.  Commencement  too  was  at  hand, 
a  sacred  festival  to  that  loyal  son  of  the  Uni 
versity,  and  his  son  Charles  was  to  graduate. 
Secretary  Cox,  whom  he  had  invited  to  be  his 
guest,  wrote  :  "  It  seemed  to  me  that  the  return 
to  the  associations  of  his  home  was  peculiarly 
grateful  to  him,  in  the  stress  of  spirit  to  which 
he  had  been  subjected.  He  dwelt  with  evident 
pleasure  upon  everything  which  recalled  the  self- 
devotion  of  the  old  patriots,  and  upon  the  incen 
tive  it  was  to  act  upon  nobler  motives  than  per 
sonal  ambition,  or  even  the  confidence  of  success." 

July  10,  the  day  after  reaching  home,  he  wrote 
his  brother  Frisbie  :  — 

"  I  got  home  safe  and  tired  last  night,  and  found 
myself  much  used  up  this  morning.  The  excite 
ment  and  labor  of  the  last  few  days  in  Washing- 


THE  ATTORNEY-GENERALSHIP     215 

ton  had  been  pretty  severe,  as  I  found  when  the 
reaction  came,  but  to-night  I  am  feeling  fresh  and 
hearty  again  and  I  expect  to  begin  work  on  my 
' first  case'  to-morrow  morning  with  a  good  relish. 
...  I  only  hope  my  parting  exhortations  to  the 
President  will  last  him  through  the  session.  I 
heard  of  something  he  said  to  a  senator  next 
morning  that  showed  part  of  it  was  working  right. 

"  Washington  and  my  life  there  looks  very  far 
away  already,  but,  on  looking  the  past  year  and  a 
half  over,  I  doubt  whether  I  shall  ever  be  likely 
to  do  more  good  again  in  the  same  time." 

He  tells  of  a  letter  from  Attorney-General  Aker- 
man  expressing  gratitude  for  his  kindness. 

To  the  serious  chronicle  of  his  life  as  Attorney- 
General  may  be  added,  in  conclusion,  part  of  a  letter 
to  Mrs.  Hoar,  and  one  to  Mr.  Lowell,  since  they 
bring  a  little  light  into  the  picture,  and  show  how 
he  bore  extreme  conditions  of  life. 

EXTRACT  FROM  LETTER  TO  MRS.  HOAR 

WASHINGTON,  July  17,  1869. 
It  is  hot!  hotter!  !  hottest !  !  !  hottentot !  hot- 
tentotter !  hottentottest !  more  hottentotter  !  most 
hottentottest!  !!!!!!!!  The  daily  bill  of  fare 
is  as  follows 

For  breakfast,  Attorney-General  broiled 
"   dinner,  "  "       roasted 

"   supper,  "  "       boiled 


216      EBENEZER  ROCKWOOD  HOAR 

and  the  same  dish  kept  hot  in  an  oven,  and  served 
at  any  hour  of  the  night.  Flies  and  mosquitoes 
taken  to  board  by  the  day,  week  or  month,  on  rea 
sonable  terms. 

The  thermometer  was  reported  at  106°  yester 
day,  but  I  don't  believe  it. — At  the  National 
Hotel  it  was  said  to  be  at  110° — in  the  shade — 
but  that  house  is  largely  resorted  to  by  Democrats, 
who  may  bring  some  little  premonitions  of  their 
future  prospects  with  them — J.  C.  B.  Davis  came 
with  his  carriage  last  evening  and  Secretary  Fish 
and  Robeson  with  him  to  invite  me  to  take  a  drive 
starting  at  7| — and  not  returning  till  near  ten 
—  We  went  through  Mr.  Corcoran's  grounds  and 
by  the  Soldiers  Home,  and  it  was  very  refreshing. 

CONCORD,  Sept.  1,  1869. 

MY  DEAR  PROFESSOR,— Your  letter  came  this 
morning.  I  had  previously  written  to  J.  H.  that  I 
should  expect  you  and  him  on  Thursday,  by  the 
train  which  leaves  Boston  at  4  p.  M.  (not  4.30,  "  as 
certain  Anabaptists  falsely  pretend").  I  expect  to  be 
in  the  train,  and  to  pick  you  up  at  Porter's  at  4.10 
-  If  this  weather  holds,  bring  your  flannel  shirts 
and  great  coats.  —  We  have  blankets,  and  a  wood 
pile,  and  coal  in  the  cellar.  Don't  be  tempted  to 
stop,  if  you  see  Walden  Pond  frozen  over.  The 
river  will  be  safer.  Perhaps  your  own  skates  will 
fit  you  better  than  any  I  have  —  but  we  have 
plenty  of  sleds,  and  a  tremendous  thermometer. 


THE  ATTORNEY-GENERALSHIP     217 

I  came  from  the  direction  of  the  North  Pole  last 
evening  and  left  nothing  to  be  desired  behind  me. 
Do  you  remember  the  summer?  I  believe  there 
was  one  —  but  this  seems  to  me  the  earliest  fall 
known — except  Adam's. 

Yours  stiffly,  yea,  rigorously, 

E.  R.  HOAR. 
PROF.  JAS.  R.  LOWELL. 

It  was  during  this  period  that,  in  a  letter  to  Mr. 
Forbes  acknowledging  payment  for  some  legal 
service,  he  laid  down  the  rule  on  a  subject  of 
perennial  interest  to  his  profession;  and,  as  the 
dictum  of  a  very  high  authority,  his  statement  is 
preserved :  — 

"The  etiquette  of  the  bar '  to  which  you  allude, 
so  far  as  I  ever  understood  it,  is  for  lawyers  to  re 
ceive  thankfully  whatever  their  clients  offer  or 
choose  to  pay  them,  and  to  send  bills  to  such  as 
are  indebted  whenever  in  want  of  money  —  which 
is  apt  to  lead  to  great  punctuality  in  settlements." 

To  this  time  also  belongs  his  speech  at  the  din 
ner  of  the  Harvard  Alumni  on  June  29,  1869, 
which  was  as  follows:  - 

"Mr.  President,  Brethren  and  Sons  of  Harvard  : 
I  wish  I  could  furnish  anything  so  delightful  to 
your  ears  as  is  the  sight  of  your  faces  to  my  eyes. 
I  have  very  little  to  offer  you  except  the  expres 
sion  of  my  pleasure  in  being  with  you  to-day.  But 
a  single  thought,  derived  from  the  opening  re- 


218      EBENEZER  ROCKWOOD  HOAR 

marks  of  our  president,  I  wish  to  suggest.  I  read 
last  week  in  one  of  those  publications,  the  writers 
of  which  seem  to  think  that  they  have  a  call  to 
regulate  not  only  the  politics  but  the  morals  and 
the  culture  of  the  country  —  I  mean  the  New 
York  newspapers — something  like  this  sentence: 
'A  sad  occurrence ;  two  rich  men  in  Boston  died 
last  month,  neither  of  whom  left  anything  to  Har 
vard  College,  and  neither  did  either  of  them  leave 
anything  to  the  Massachusetts  General  Hospital, 
another  sponge  that  has  soaked  up  its  hundreds 
of  thousands  from  the  community.'  Well  now, 
brethren,  it  is  a  graceful  custom  to  express  on 
such  occasions  as  these  our  gratitude  to  our  bene 
factors, —  to  those  men  who  have  endowed  the 
College  from  its  infancy  to  its  present  maturity 
and  strength.  But  the  idea  that  I  for  one  wish  to 
express  on  this  occasion  is,  the  debt  which  the 
benefactors  owe  to  the  College.  They  owe  to  it 
that  they  are  not  to  have  that  dreariest  and  sad 
dest  of  all  epitaphs  recorded  in  history  :  '  The  rich 
man  died  and  was  buried/  It  has  been  one  of  the 
first  functions  of  Harvard  College,  from  its  foun 
dation,  to  educate  the  community  to  have  a  sense 
of  public  duty.  It  is  to  the  influence  of  Harvard 
College  that  we  owe  the  character  of  the  men 
who  are  its  benefactors.  From  that  day  of  poverty 
and  weakness,  when  the  colony  contributed  from 
its  small  stores  '  to  the  end  that  learning  should 
not  die  in  the  graves  of  the  fathers/  until  the 


THE  ATTORNEY-GENERALSHIP     219 

present  time,  the  influence  of  the  College,  spread 
ing  as  it  goes  through  the  country,  has  been  felt 
in  this  relation.  I  would  say  nothing  in  disparage 
ment  of  the  other  colleges  which  are  its  descend 
ants,  nor  of  their  fair  and  just  share  in  this  influ 
ence  ;  for  much  as  I  love  and  admire,  and  much 
as  I  hope  from  our  institution,  I  am  willing  to  see 
that  there  shall  be  more  beautiful  daughters  of 
the  beautiful  mother  elsewhere  ;  but  wherever 
throughout  this  broad  land  you  find  the  spirit  of 
public  duty,  there  you  will  recognize  the  spirit  of 
Harvard/' 

It  was  of  his  appearance  on  this  occasion  that 
Mr.  Emerson  wrote  in  his  diary  :  - 

"Judge  Hoar  in  his  speech  at  the  Alumni  din 
ner  at  Cambridge  yesterday  was  a  perfect  exam 
ple  of  Coleridge's  definition  of  genius  :  'The  car 
rying  the  feelings  of  youth  into  the  powers  of 
manhood/  and  the  audience  were  impressed  and 
delighted  with  the  rare  combination  of  the  inno 
cence  of  a  boy  with  the  faculty  of  a  hero." 


CHAPTER  VI 

THE  PUBLIC-SPIRITED   CITIZEN 

MR.  EMERSON'S  note  "that  they  who  drink  for 
some  time  the  Potomac  water  lose  their  relish " 
for  the  streams  of  their  native  state,  expresses 
poetically  an  almost  universal  truth.  Washington 
exercises  a  strong  fascination  over  those  who  have 
ever  become  at  home  there,  and  men  who  have 
once  tasted  the  sweets  of  power  are  very  loath  to 
lay  it  down.  The  corridors  of  the  capitol  and  the 
avenues  of  Washington  are  haunted  by  the  ghosts 
of  public  men  who  have  lost  their  offices  and  are 
seeking  in  some  way  to  enter  again  the  public 
service.  The  loss  of  one  office  constitutes  in  their 
eyes  a  valid  claim  to  another,  and  their  importu 
nities  grow  with  their  necessities. 

A  striking  exception  to  this  rule,  Judge  Hoar 
turned  from  a  place  where  he  was  exercising  a 
direct  and  powerful  influence  over  the  affairs  of 
a  great  nation  to  the  quiet  life  of  a  private  citi 
zen  in  a  New  England  town,  with  absolute  serenity. 
He  made  no  claims  on  the  Administration,  made  no 
suggestion  even  to  his  most  intimate  friends  that 
he  was  disturbed  by  the  change,  but  quietly  re 
sumed  the  even  tenor  of  his  way. 

On  July  18,  1870,  he  wrote  to   Mr.  Lowell : 


THE  PUBLIC-SPIRITED  CITIZEN    221 

"  Like  the  man  who  retired  on  a  single  anecdote, 
I  have  left  the  public  employment  on  a  single 
professional  engagement,  and  its  necessities  will, 
as  I  now  expect,  take  me  up  to  Vermont  on  Mon 
day  next  to  be  gone  for  two  weeks."  After  that  "  I 
shall  want  and  depend  upon  you  and  John  [Holmes] 
for  a  few  days  at  that  time  to  aid  me  in  some  ex 
plorations  by  land  or  water." 

On  August  12  he  returns  to  the  subject  thus :  - 

MY  DEAR  JAMES,  —  I  have  been  at  home  for 
a  week ;  but  it  has  been  so  fiery  hot,  dusty,  and 
generally  uncomfortable,  that  I  have  not  had  the 
assurance  to  invite  anybody  to  partake  of  my 
misery.  But  we  have  had  rain !  and  now  are  as 
good  as  new  —  and  want  you  and  John  to  come 
and  make  our  felicity  complete.  When  will  you 
come  ?  I  shall  be  glad  to  see  you  any  time  within 
the  next  ten  days,  and  probably  ever  after. 
Chaucer  has  got  his  deserts  at  last,  I  am  glad  to 
see,  —  and  now  I  want  mine. 

Rouse  John,  and  come. 

Faithfully  yours, 

E.  R.  HOAR. 

But  he  was  not  permitted  to  remain  long  at 
home.  His  country  had  need  of  his  wisdom  and 
his  character  in  an  international  matter  of  high 
importance,  difficult,  and  dangerous  to  adjust. 

When  the  war  ended,  it  became  the  duty  of  our 


222      EBENEZER  ROCKWOOD  HOAR 

minister,  Mr.  Adams,  to  call  the  attention  of  Eng 
land  to  the  claims  of  the  United  States  for  the 
depredations  committed  by  the  Alabama  and 
other  privateers,  wholly  or  partially  equipped  in 
England  or  sheltered  in  her  ports.  His  communi 
cation  was  coldly  received.  It  has  already  been 
told  how,  in  1869,  the  Johnson-Clarendon  Treaty, 
when  submitted  to  the  Senate,  was  killed  by 
Charles  Sumner's  powerful  attack,  in  which  he 
showed  that  it  was  wholly  inadequate,  since  it 
provided  only  for  the  adjustment  of  individual 
claims  and  left  untouched  the  far  greater  claims 
of  the  nation,  while  it  settled  no  rule  of  interna 
tional  duty,  which  should  not  only  be  recognized 
as  governing  the  past,  but  should  be  established 
as  a  guarantee  for  the  future. 

Mr.  Schurz  stated  Mr.  Sumner's  purpose  very 
clearly  when  he  said :  "  What  he  desired  to  ac 
complish  was,  not  to  extort  from  England  a  large 
sum  of  money,  but  to  put  our  grievance  in  the 
strongest  light,  to  convince  England  of  the  great 
wrong  she  had  inflicted  upon  us,  and  thus  prepare 
a  composition  which,  consisting  more  in  the  settle 
ment  of  great  principles  and  rules  of  international 
law  to  govern  the  future  intercourse  of  nations 
than  in  the  payment  of  large  damages,  would  re 
move  all  questions  of  difference,  and  serve  to  re 
store  and  confirm  a  friendship  which  ought  never 
to  have  been  interrupted." 

The  Senate's  rejection  of  this  treaty  for  the 


THE  PUBLIC-SPIRITED   CITIZEN    223 

reasons  stated  in  Mr.  Sumner's  speech  "  startled 
the  British  Ministry  and  aroused  deep  resentment 
through  the  country.  The  mere  suggestion  that 
England  ought  to  apologize  rendered  further  dis 
cussion  impossible,  in  the  opinion  of  most  English 
men.  The  matter  was  dropped  until  1871,  when  it 
was  suddenly  brought  forward  by  a  skilful  diplo 
matic  move.  President  Grant,  in  his  message,  re 
ported  that  England  would  not  admit  that  America 
had  a  grievance,  and  therefore  he  recommended 
that  a  Commission  be  appointed  to  take  proof  of 
private  claims  for  damages  suffered  from  the  Ala 
bama,  or  other  vessels,  with  authority  to  settle  the 
same  by  purchase,  so  that  the  United  States  might 
own  and  control  all  such  demands  against  Great 
Britain." * 

This  quiet  and  significant  suggestion,  coupled 
with  the  fear  that  the  Franco-Prussian  quarrel 
might  draw  England  into  war,  and  render  her 
own  views  of  a  neutral's  obligations  highly  incon 
venient  to  herself,  almost  immediately  resulted  in 
unofficial  advances  from  the  English  Government. 
England  had  every  reason  to  be  anxious.  Some  ad 
justment  was  imperative,  for  her  turn  to  suffer 
by  her  arrogant  theory  and  practice  might  come 
at  any  moment.  Both  countries  realized  that  an 
other  failure  might  entail  disastrous  consequences. 
Tactful  preliminaries  resulted  in  the  appointment 

1  "Decisive  Battles  of  the  Law,"  by  Frederick  Trevor  Hill; 
Harper's  Monthly,  January,  1907. 


224      EBENEZER  ROCKWOOD  HOAR 

of  a  Joint  High  Commission  empowered  to  meet 
at  Washington  and  negotiate  a  treaty  for  the 
settlement  of  all  differences.  On  February  7  we 
find  the  Judge  writing :  "  Washington  seems  far 
ther  off  to  me  than  it  ever  did,  but  I  take  a  slight 
posthumous  satisfaction  in  hearing  of  what  goes 
on  there  "  ;  and  on  February  20  he  was  appointed 
a  member  of  the  Joint  High  Commission. 

The  five  Commissioners  for  the  United  States 
were  Hamilton  Fish,  Secretary  of  State ;  Robert 
C.  Schenck,  newly  appointed  Minister  to  Great 
Britain ;  Samuel  Nelson,  Justice  of  the  Supreme 
Court ;  George  H.  Williams,  Senator  from  Oregon ; 
and  Judge  Hoar  —  "  fitting  representatives  of  the 
diplomacy,  the  bench,  the  bar  and  the  legislature 
of  their  own  land." 

The  five  Commissioners  for  Great  Britain  were 
Earl  de  Grey  and  Ripon,  President  of  the  Queen's 
Council ;  Sir  Stafford  Northcote,  ex-Minister,  and 
actual  member  of  the  House  of  Commons ;  Sir 
Edward  Thornton,  the  accomplished  and  respected 
British  Minister  at  Washington;  Sir  John  A.  Mac- 
donald,  the  Premier  of  Canada,  and  Professor 
Montague  Bernard,  representative  of  the  English 
Universities. 

The  following  extract  from  a  letter  written  on 
April  27,  1871,  by  Sir  Stafford  Northcote  to  Mr. 
Sumner,  shows  that  the  "  irritation"  caused  by  Mr. 
Sumner's  speech  on  the  Johnson-Clarendon  Treaty 
had  subsided,  and  that  the  real  purpose  of  that 


THE  PUBLIC-SPIRITED  CITIZEN    225 

speech  was  now  recognized.  He  said :  "  I  have  to 
thank  you  for  sending  me  your  speech  on  the 
Johnson-Clarendon  Treaty.  ...  I  cannot  tell  you 
how  cordially  I  sympathize  with  what  seems  to 
me  the  governing  idea  of  the  speech.  Great  inter 
national  differences  are  not  to  be  disposed  of  by 
huddling  them  up  and  pretending  not  to  look  at 
them,  nor  to  be  treated  as  a  man  treats  a  bad 
shilling  by  trying  to  pass  it  among  a  handful  of 
half -pence  .  .  .  and  though  I  must  own  your 
speech  was  somewhat  sharp,  I  verily  believe  that 
it  taught  us  a  valuable  lesson  in  that  respect, 
and  that  we  may  say  of  it,  'Fidelia  vulnera 
amantis.' ' 

The  Commission  completed  its  difficult  work  on 
May  8, 1871,  when  "The  Treaty  of  Washington" 
was  signed,  and  on  the  same  day  the  Judge  wrote 
to  his  brother  Frisbie :  "At  11.12  this  forenoon 
the  treaty  was  signed,  and  we  are  waiting  for  the 
verdict.  ...  I  shall  probably  stay  a  week  or  two 
longer  to  explain  things  to  senators,  if  explana 
tions  are  wanted,  and  then  retire  from  public 
life."  Of  it  Mr.  F.  T.  Hill,  in  the  paper  above 
quoted,  said :  "  Certainly  the  document .  .  .  seemed 
to  meet  all  the  objections  which  had  been  so  forci 
bly  urged  against  the  Johnson-Clarendon  Treaty. 
In  the  first  place,  it  provided  for  '  the  amicable 
adjustment  of  all  the  differences  between  the  two 
countries/  a  distinct  recognition  of  the  national 
character  of  the  dispute.  In  the  second  place,  it 


226      EBENEZER  ROCKWOOD  HOAR 

specifically  referred  to  '  the  claims  of  the  United 
States,  generally  known  as  the  Alabama  Claims/ 
and  expressed  '  the  regret  felt  by  her  Majesty's 
Government  for  the  escape,  under  whatever  cir 
cumstances,  of  the  Alabama  and  other  vessels  from 
British  ports,  and  for  the  depredations  committed 
by  those  vessels/  a  most  acceptable  substitute  for 
the  impossible  apology.  Next,  it  laid  down  certain 
rules  or  principles  of  international  law  upon  which 
it  should  be  assumed  that  England  had  undertaken 
to  act  in  the  past,  and  which  both  nations  agreed 
to  observe  in  the  future.  And,  finally,  it  provided 
for  an  impartial  Board  of  Arbitration,  with  ample 
powers  to  adjust  all  outstanding  grievances.  In 
a  word,  it  was  a  complete  diplomatic  triumph  for 
the  United  States,  and  a  virtual  acknowledgment 
of  the  justice  of  the  issues  for  which  it  had  so  long 
contended." 

Judge  Hoar's  work  and  influence  were  import 
ant  in  the  Commission,  which  drew  up  a  treaty 
so  excellent  that  it  received  the  prompt  approval 
of  both  governments ;  which,  in  the  words  of  Caleb 
Gushing,  a  high  authority  on  international  law, 
"  passed  unscathed  through  the  severest  ordeal  of 
a  temporary  misunderstanding  between  the  two 
governments  (at  Geneva),  respecting  the  construc 
tion  of  some  of  its  provisions ;  which  has  already 
attained  the  dignity  of  a  monumental  act  in  the 
estimation  of  mankind,  and  which  is  destined  to 
occupy  hereafter  a  lofty  place  in  the  history  of 


THE   PUBLIC-SPIRITED   CITIZEN    227 

the  diplomacy  and  the  international  jurisprudence 
of  Europe  and  America." 

But  high  praise  is  due  Hon.  Charles  Francis 
Adams  for  the  dignity,  tact,  and  temper  with  which, 
later,  he  overcame  the  opposing  tactics  of  Sir 
Alexander  Cockburn,  when  it  looked  as  if  the 
arbitration  would  be  wrecked  in  port. 

This  anecdote  of  Judge  Hoar  should  not  be  lost. 
When  it  came  time  for  the  members  of  the  High 
Commission  to  sign  and  affix  seals  to  the  Treaty 
of  Washington,  Lord  Tenterden,  having  signed  and 
affixed  his  seal,  asked  the  Judge  if  he  had  any 
family  seal  of  his  own  or  any  family  crest.  "  None, 
excepting  a  sleeve  button  that  may  answer  the 
purpose,  my  family  being  without  any  other  in 
signia,"  answered  the  Judge. 

At  the  Commencement  dinner  in  July,  the 
Judge  was  called  upon  to  tell  the  Alumni  of  his 
success.  When  the  tremendous  applause  subsided, 
he  said  :  "  Brother  Alumni,  my  speech  to  you  to 
day  will  consist  of  two  quotations.  One  is  from  a 
letter  which  John  Jay  wrote  to  his  wife  when  he 
had  negotiated  the  Treaty  of  London :  '  What  I 
think  of  the  Treaty  you  will  know  when  you  hear 
that  I  signed  it.'  The  other  is  Sydney  Smith's  re 
mark  about  his  countrymen  :  'Mr.  Bull  is  silent, 
not  because  Mr.  Bull  doesn't  want  to  talk,  but  be 
cause  Mr.  Bull  has  nothing  to  say/" 

There  is  little  doubt  that  the  distinguished 
Britons  of  the  Commission  discovered  that  they 


228      EBENEZER  ROCKWOOD  HOAR 

were  dealing  with  a  man  of  wisdom  and  wit.  One 
would  have  given  much  to  see  their  faces  when 
he  astounded  these  University  men  with  a  classic 
quotation,  supporting  a  statement  as  to  the  an 
tiquity  of  a  legal  custom  common  in  America. 
They  inquired  with  interest  about  the  American 
practice  of  registering  deeds,  as  the  need  of  some 
such  system  was  felt  in  England.  The  Judge  ex 
plained  it,  but  told  them  they  were  mistaken  in 
thinking  the  scheme  new ;  that  it  was  employed 
by  the  Greeks  centuries  before  the  Christian  era. 
The  Englishmen  showed  surprise  and  incredulity. 
He  went  on  :  "  Not  only  did  they  register  their 
deeds,  but  they  were  familiar  with  the  doctrine 
of  '  constructive  notice/  for  we  read  in  the  An 
thology,  — 

"  Athenian  ^Ischylus,  Euphorion's  son, 
Buried  in  Gela's  earth,  these  lines  declare; 
His  deeds  are  registered  at  Marathon, 
Known  to  the  deep-haired  Mede  who  met  him  there." 

Having  accomplished,  with  his  associates,  a  work 
of  beneficence  for  the  two  countries  and  for  man 
kind,  the  Judge  returned  to  his  native  village  and 
resumed  the  practice  of  law  in  Boston. 

In  the  autumn  of  1871,  General  Benjamin  F. 
Butler  made  his  first  attempt  to  become  governor 
of  *  Massachusetts,  this  time  by  seeking  the  nomi 
nation  of  the  Republican  party.  Judge  Hoar  took 
an  active  part  in  organizing  the  opposition  to  him, 
not  only  during  the  campaign  for  the  election  of 


THE  PUBLIC-SPIRITED  CITIZEN    229 

delegates,  but  also  in  the  convention,  and  he  un 
doubtedly  exercised  a  powerful  influence  in  secur 
ing  Butler's  defeat. 

Though  Grant's  first  administration  was  now 
closing  amid  scandals  of  various  sorts,  and  though 
the  Judge  cannot  have  approved  the  President's 
political  advisers,  or  his  course  in  various  matters, 
he  apparently  felt  no  sympathy  with  the  "  Liberal 
Republican"  movement  in  the  spring  of  1872, 
which  resulted  in  the  unfortunate  nomination  of 
Horace  Greeley  for  President.  He  seems  to  have 
occupied  himself  wholly  with  the  practice  of  law 
until  the  autumn,  and,  as  might  have  been  ex 
pected,  there  was  no  lack  of  clients. 

In  August,  1872,  he  replied  to  a  letter  asking 
him  to  speak  in  another  state:  "It  is  hard  to  re 
fuse  such  an  invitation,  for  I  feel  strongly  the 
obligation  of  every  true  Republican  to  do  all  in  his 
power,  however  little  it  may  be,  to  help  the  good 
cause.  But  first,  I  am  not  in  political  life  at  all, 
and  it  hardly  seems  natural  to  go  on  a  political 
tour  into  another  state ;  second,  I  don't  think  I 
have  any  particular  gifts  in  the  way  of  popular 
oratory  and  should  not  be  of  much  use."  In  the 
autumn,  however,  he  was  nominated  by  the  Re 
publicans  for  representative  in  the  Forty-third 
Congress  from  the  Middlesex  District,  and  was 
elected  by  11,742  votes  against  5,989  cast  for  his 
opponent.  He  was  also  chosen  a  presidential 
elector  on  the  Republican  ticket. 


230      EBENEZER  ROCKWOOD   HOAR 

In  a  letter  of  October  27  there  is  a  contempo 
rary  record  of  the  singular  epidemic  which  visited 
the  horses  in  Boston  and  its  neighborhood,  and  by 
crippling  the  fire-service,  materially  contributed 
to  the  rapid  spread  of  the  great  fire  which  burned 
over  some  eighty  acres  in  the  heart  of  Boston  a 
few  days  later.  He  says  :  "Boston  yesterday  pre 
sented  a  very  singular  appearance.  No  omnibuses, 
no  horse-cars,  no  express  wagons,  no  loaded  teams, 
the  sidewalks  crowded,  but  no  noise  of  any  kind, 
and  all  business  very  much  interrupted.  The  Con 
cord  expressmen  would  take  nothing  that  they 
could  not  carry  in  their  hands.  Trunks  were  taken 
from  one  railroad  to  another  in  wheelbarrows  and 
handcarts." 

Some  one  rightly  said  of  Judge  Hoar  :  "  His 
love  of  the  College  was  like  a  son's  love  for  his 
mother."  President  Walker  said  that  this  devoted 
son  had  been  able  to  serve  her  in  a  thousand  ways 
by  the  wisdom  of  his  counsels  and  the  weight  of 
his  character. 

A  characteristic  act,  most  important  in  its  effect 
as  suggestion  and  example,  occurred  just  after  the 
Boston  fire,  and  is  thus  reported  by  Mr.  Charles 
Francis  Adams :  - 

"  President  Eliot  told  me  that,  a  day  or  two  after 
the  fire,  he,  the  treasurer  of  the  College,  and  I 
think  one  other  member  of  the  Corporation,  were 
seated  in  the  treasurer's  office,  computing  as  well 
as  they  then  could  the  extent  of  the  calamity,  and 


THE   PUBLIC-SPIRITED   CITIZEN     231 

looking  each  other  in  the  face  in  blank  dismay. 
The  disaster  seemed  fairly  irretrievable.  Foot 
steps,  he  said,  were  then  heard  on  the  stairs  out 
side,  and,  opening  the  door,  Judge  Hoar  came  in. 

"  He  had  in  his  hand  a  bond,  railroad  or  other 
wise,  just  taken  apparently  from  his  box,  and  with 
as  deep  a  feeling  as  he  ever  allowed  himself  to 
show,  he  proceeded  to  say  that  he  considered  he 
owed  everything  to  Harvard  College,  —  a  debt 
nothing  he  could  do  or  give  would  ever  repay ; 
that  he  saw  she  had  been  one  of  the  heaviest 
losers  by  the  fire,  and  now  stood  in  need  of  help ; 
and  so,  as  one  of  her  children,  he  had  brought  in 
his  contribution  now ;  and,  so  saying,  he  handed 
the  bond  to  the  treasurer.  Some  one  else,  I  do 
not  remember  who,  presently  appeared  that  day 
on  the  same  errand ;  and,  added  the  President,  it 
then  occurred  to  me  that  if  these  two  felt  thus, 
others  probably  felt  the  same  way,  and  an  imme 
diate  public  appeal  for  aid  was  decided  upon.  The 
blow  thus  struck  was  timed  exactly.  Within  sixty 
days,  more  than  $180,000  poured  in  upon  the  as 
tonished  treasurer." 

This  action  of  President  Eliot's,  Mr.  Adams 
well  calls  "The  Napoleonic  stroke  of  mendi 
cancy," 

Immediately  after  the  election,  Judge  Hoar 
wrote  to  Mr.  Evarts :  — 

"  The  election  seems  to  be  satisfactory,  except 
that  I  am  personally  in  a  bad  scrape  by  being 


232      EBENEZER  ROCKWOOD   HOAR 

elected  to  Congress.  I  wish  that  the  result  in  your 
state  could  lead  to  your  going  to  the  Senate." 

A  few  days  later  he  wrote  to  President  Grant 
the  following  letter  :  - 

CONCORD,  Nov.  18,  1872. 

MY  DEAR  SIR, —  You  have  received  the  con 
gratulations  of  so  many  people  on  the  result  of 
the  election,  that  it  hardly  seems  worth  while  to 
send  you  mine,  and  I  should  have  been  willing  to 
leave  you  to  take  them  for  granted,  and  even  the 
fact  that  our  little  village  gave  you  one  more  ma 
jority  than  in  1868.  But  I  do  wish  to  say  one  thing: 
in  the  few  speeches  which  I  made  in  the  canvass 
I  always  reminded  the  people  how  steadily  you 
had  pressed  upon  the  attention  of  Congress,  in  each 
of  your  annual  messages,  the  duty  of  taking  active 
measures  for  a  return  to  specie  payments,  and 
nothing  seemed  to  elicit  a  more  hearty  response. 
Will  you  permit  me  to  express  the  hope  that  your 
next  message  and  every  succeeding  one  till  the 
object  is  accomplished,  will  show  that  you  mean 
to  fight  it  out  on  that  line.  The  solid  sense  of  the 
community,  among  rich  and  poor,  favors  it ;  and 
we  hope  the  Boston  fire  will  not  be  made  a  pre 
text  for  the  additional  calamity  of  an  expansion 
of  the  currency.  .  .  . 

The  great  satisfaction  which  I  have  felt  in  the 
result  of  the  election,  in  the  result  at  Geneva,  and 
the  St.  Juan  decision,  is  only  impaired  by  the  dis- 


THE  PUBLIC-SPIRITED   CITIZEN     233 

agreeable  conduct  of  my  neighbors  in  electing  me 
to  Congress  against  my  wishes,  interests  and  re 
monstrances. 

Very  respectfully  and  truly  yours, 

E.  R.  HOAR. 
THE  PRESIDENT. 

His  practice  had  been  growing,  and  the  follow 
ing  extract  from  a  letter  of  December  18,  1872, 
to  his  brother  Frisbie  is  interesting  in  this  con 
nection. 

"It  looks  very  certain  that  the  Jumel  case  will 
not  be  finished  till  some  time  in  January,  after 
the  Congressional  holidays,  but  the  court  does  not 
sit  on  Saturdays  and  I  can  go  to  Boston  by  the 
night  train  of  Friday,  January  3,  and  be  in  Boston 
to  argue  the  Gas  case  on  Saturday  morning,  if 
that  will  suit  you,  Judge  Nelson  and  the  court. 
It  will  be  the  best  I  can  do. 

"I  have  a  hard  case  here,  but  preserve  my 
sweetness  and  serenity  amidst  all  the  wranglings 
and  asperities  between  my  associates  and  oppo 
nents.  The  Judge  has  intimated  that  my  presence 
has  introduced  a  better  atmosphere  than  was  felt 
at  the  last  trial,  so  you  may  hope  that  my  bad 
manners  are  not  incorrigible." 

The  Jumel  case  was  a  cause  celebre  of  the  day, 
and  it  involved  the  title  to  very  valuable  estates. 
It  was  long  and  sharply  contested,  and  asperities 
between  counsel  were  not  unnatural,  so  that  the 


234      EBENEZER  ROCKWOOD  HOAR 

Judge's  associates  might  almost  have  suspected 
that  his  serenity  was  due  to  the  fact  that  he  had 
not  become  thoroughly  enlisted  in  the  contest.  It 
is  true,  however,  that  from  this  time  on,  he  re 
garded  the  suits  in  which  he  was  engaged  with  a 
more  judicial  temper  than  is  often  possible  when 
a  lawyer  is  young  and  has  his  reputation  to  make. 

The  deaths  of  Chief  Justice  Chase  and  Chief 
Justice  Chapman  left  their  seats  vacant  during 
the  summer  of  1873.  On  August  29,  Judge  Hoar 
was  offered  and  declined  the  Chief  Justiceship  of 
Massachusetts.  Very  likely  he  did  not  wish  to 
stand  in  the  way  of  his  friend  Judge  Gray.  On 
September  25,  he  wrote  to  his  brother :  "  I  saw 
Sumner  to-day,  and  he  said  he  met  you  yesterday. 
He  goes  for  me  for  Chief  Justice,  and  you  for 
Senator,  but  his  opinion,  though  worth  having,  is 
not  so  potent  as  it  was.  Next  to  me  for  Chief  Jus 
tice  he  would  be  willing  to  take  Evarts." 

The  President's  political  environment  was  not 
then  favorable  to  such  a  suggestion,  nor  to  Mr. 
Sumner  who  made  it,  and,  as  will  be  remembered, 
after  the  nominations  of  Attorney-General  Wil 
liams  and  Caleb  Gushing  had  been  made  and  re 
jected,  the  choice  fell,  as  Judge  Hoar  said,  "on 
the  favorite  of  the  law,  an  innocent  third  party," 
and  Chief  Justice  Waite  received  the  appointment. 
Indeed  Judge  Hoar  made  no  effort  to  obtain  the 
position,  and  favored  Mr.  Evarts,  to  whom  he 
wrote  as  follows  :  — 


THE  PUBLIC-SPIRITED   CITIZEN     235 

CONCORD,  July  2,  1873. 

DEAR  WILLIAM,  —  As  to  the  Chief  Justiceship, 
it  would  pain  me  very  much  to  suppose  that  the 
President  would  omit  the  most  fit  man  for  it,  if 
he  does  not  resort  to  the  present  members  of  the 
Court,  and  I  have  not  the  least  belief  in  any  such 
selection  as  you  intimate.  I  think  he  will  appoint 
you,  as  he  ought  to  do,  or  Judge  Miller,  who  is 
able  and  respectable,  and  the  next  best  thing.  Fail 
ing  these,  there  are  enough  poor  sticks  to  scramble 
for  it,  and  it  would  be  as  likely  to  go  to  the  poor 
est  of  the  lot  as  any  way.  At  any  rate  there  is 
nothing  to  put  me  in  the  list.  If  fitness  governs, 
you  will  be  the  foremost,  and  if  it  does  not,  I 
should  be  sorry  to  think  I  was  in  a  competition  on 
other  principles. 

Very  truly  yours, 

E.  R.  HOAR. 
HON.  W.  M.  EVARTS. 

In  the  autumn  of  this  year  General  Butler  made 
another  attempt  to  obtain  the  Republican  nomi 
nation  for  governor  of  Massachusetts  and  was 
again  defeated.  At  a  meeting  of  his  opponents, 
Judge  Hoar  made  a  speech  in  which  he  said: 
"  The  people  of  Massachusetts  will  not  yield  the 
office  of  governor  to  a  Tichborne  claimant,  either 
with  or  without  a  bond  " ;  and  from  this,  Butler 
got  the  nickname  of  "The  Claimant,"  which  stuck 
to  him  permanently  thereafter. 


236      EBENEZER  ROCKWOOD   HOAR 

In  December,  1873,  Judge  Hoar  took  his  seat  in 
the  Forty-third  Congress.  The  previous  Congress 
had  investigated  the  Credit  Mobilier  scandal, 
and  the  Republican  leaders  were  fast  losing  their 
hold  upon  public  confidence.  Judge  Hoar  found 
Mr.  Elaine,  who  was  the  Speaker  of  the  House, 
very  attractive,  and  conceived  a  strong  regard  for 
him,  which  proved  not  to  be  easily  shaken  when 
it  was  tried  at  a  later  day.  He  was,  however,  in 
opposition  to  the  Republican  party  on  some  meas 
ures  which  the  Administration  had  much  at  heart. 
The  panic  of  1873  had  begun  in  September,  the 
country  was  suffering  from  severe  financial  de 
pression,  and  the  question  of  the  currency  was 
immediately  pressing.  The  remedy  proposed  by 
the  Republican  majority  was  an  increase  in  the 
volume  of  the  currency,  and  the  so-called  "  infla 
tion  bill "  passed  both  Houses  in  April.  The  Presi 
dent  unexpectedly  vetoed  it,  and  by  so  doing  saved 
the  country  from  what  must  have  been  the  ruin 
ous  consequences  of  the  measure.  In  this  course 
he  was  supported  and  perhaps  advised  by  Judge 
Hoar. 

When,  at  the  next  session,  Senator  Sherman's 
resumption  act,  passed  by  the  Senate  in  December, 
came  up  for  action  in  the  House,  Judge  Hoar  with 
his  brother,  Henry  L.  Dawes,  and  others,  voted 
against  it  on  the  ground  that  it  permitted  an  in 
flation  of  the  currency,  and  was  ineffectual  to  ac 
complish  its  avowed  purpose ;  but  it  was  passed  in 


THE   PUBLIC-SPIRITED   CITIZEN    237 

spite  of  their  opposition.    The  day  after  its  pas 
sage  Judge  Hoar  wrote  to  Mr.  J.  M.  Forbes  as 

follows :  - 

WASHINGTON,  Jan.  8,  1875. 

DEAR  MR.  FORBES,  —  You  saw  by  the  telegram 
and  newspapers  that  the  finance  bill  passed  the 
House,  without  opportunity  for  discussion,  amend 
ment,  or  even  remonstrance. 

It  will  be  promptly  signed  by  the  President,  and 
he  will  then  try  to  stimulate  Congress  at  this  ses 
sion  to  make  some  preparation  for  resuming  specie 
payment  (entre  nous,  he  is  thinking  of  sending  a 
special  message  for  that  purpose).  He  favors  the 
plan  of  beginning  to  redeem  now,  at  a  fixed  rate, 
to  decline  gradually  to  the  end  of  the  four  years. 
Bristow  interprets  the  act  as  not  authorizing  a  re 
issue  of  greenbacks  withdrawn  on  the  issue  of  addi 
tional  bank-notes. 

I  did  what  I  could  against  the  bill  in  private, 
and  have  the  promise  of  some  men  who  voted  for 
it,  to  try  to  supplement  it  by  something  to  make 
it  effectual.  Such  men  voted  for  it  as  a  bar  to 
something  worse,  and  a  pledge  of  good  intentions 
-  as  "  the  grave  of  inflation,"  as  they  call  it. 

Is  not  the  devil  and  all  broke  loose  in  Louisi 
ana  ?  We  are  trying  to  keep  still  till  we  get  the 
report  of  our  Committee. 

I  find  myself  well  again — and  reasonably  pug 
nacious.  Very  truly  yourgj 

E.  R.  HOAR. 
JOHN  M.  FORBES,  ESQ. 


238      EBENEZER  ROCKWOOD   HOAR 

The  last  paragraph  of  the  letter  referred  to  a 
crisis  in  Louisiana  politics.  The  returning  board 
of  that  state,  a  body  whose  reputation  was  not 
high  and  was  soon  to  become  most  unsavory,  had 
apparently  undertaken  to  unseat  certain  Demo 
crats  elected  to  the  legislature,  and  had  referred 
the  election  of  others  to  the  House  itself.  That 
body  met,  seated  the  five  members  and  chose  a 
Democratic  speaker,  whereupon  Governor  Kellogg, 
whose  own  title  was  clouded,  sent  General  de 
Trobriand  with  a  body  of  Federal  troops  who 
forcibly  ejected  the  five  members,  and  the  House 
was  then  reorganized  by  the  Republicans.  This 
action  roused  very  general  and  warm  indignation 
at  the  North,  and  meetings  were  held  in  New  York 
and  Boston,  as  well  as  elsewhere,  to  denounce  it, 
which  were  addressed  and  officered  by  strong  Re 
publicans.  The  President  in  a  special  message 
submitted  the  facts  to  Congress,  and  a  committee 
of  investigation  was  appointed  by  the  House  of 
Representatives,  which  reported  against  the  action 
of  the  returning  board.  While  this  question  was 
pending,  the  President  early  in  February  sent  in 
a  message  proposing  to  set  aside  the  state  gov 
ernment  of  Arkansas  as  illegal,  and  shortly  after 
ward  the  measure  known  as  the  "Force  Bill," 
which  gave  the  President  great  power  over  elec 
tions  in  the  Southern  states,  was  brought  for 
ward.  To  this  whole  policy  Judge  Hoar  was 
opposed,  and  with  some  forty  of  the  better  Re- 


THE   PUBLIC-SPIRITED   CITIZEN     239 

publicans  he  voted  against  the  "  Force  Bill,"  but 
it  was  passed,  only  to  fail  in  the  Senate.  The  bill 
to  annul  the  election  of  a  Democratic  governor 
and  legislature  in  Arkansas  was  defeated  in  the 
House,  and  no  one  who  knew  Judge  Hoar  can 
doubt  that  his  influence  was  potent  in  rallying  the 
opposition  to  these  measures. 

Among  the  other  services  which  his  knowledge 
and  ability  enabled  him  to  render  was  the  re 
vision  of  the  United  States  statutes  to  which  he 
contributed  much  as  a  member  of  a  committee  to 
which  the  work  of  the  revisers  was  referred. 

While  Judge  Hoar  was  in  Congress,  on  March 
11,  1874,  Charles  Sumner,  the  great  senator  from 
Massachusetts,  died,  and  Judge  Hoar  was  with 
him  during  several  hours  before  his  death.  The 
letter  in  which  the  Judge  described  Mr.  Sumner's 
last  moments  should  be  preserved. 

MY  DEAR  MR.  EMERSON,  —  Sumner  is  dead,  as 
the  telegram  will  have  told  you  before  you  receive 
this.  He  died  at  thirteen  minutes  before  three  this 
afternoon.  I  held  his  hand  when  he  died ;  and  ex 
cept  his  secretary  and  the  attending  physician, 
was  the  only  one  of  his  near  friends  who  was  in 
the  room. 

His  last  words  (except  to  say  "  Sit  down "  to 
Mr.  Hooper,  who  came  to  his  bedside,  but  had 
gone  out  before  his  death)  were  these,  "  Judge, 
tell  Emerson  how  much  I  love  and  revere  him." 


240      EBENEZER   ROCKWOOD   HOAR 

I  replied,  "  He  said  of  you,  once,  that  he  never 
knew  so  white  a  soul." 

During  the  morning  he  had  repeated  to  several 
persons,  to  me  among  the  rest,  "  You  must  take 
care  of  the  Civil  Rights  Bill."  That  was  his  last 
public  thought. 

Very  sorrowfully  and  affectionately  yours, 

E.  R.  HOAR. 

WASHINGTON,  March  11, 1874. 

When  Sumner  spoke  for  the  last  time  in  the 
Senate,  appealing  to  Senator  Edmunds  for  sup 
port  of  this  measure,  he  said,  "  My  desire,  the 
darling  desire,  if  I  may  say  so,  of  my  soul  at  this 
moment  is  to  close  forever  this  great  question,  so 
that  it  shall  never  again  intrude  into  these  cham 
bers,  so  that  hereafter  in  all  our  legislation  there 
shall  be  no  such  words  as  '  black '  or  '  white/  but 
that  we  shall  speak  only  of  citizens  and  men." 
The  bill  in  a  modified  form  became  a  law,  but 
was  pronounced  unconstitutional  by  the  Supreme 
Court. 

In  spite  of  the  temperamental  peculiarities 
which  made  Sumner  often  a  subject  of  criticism, 
his  breadth,  his  nobility,  and  his  courage  well 
merited  the  words  of  Judge  Hoar  in  the  House 
of  Representatives  :  "  Wherever  the  news  of  this 
event  spreads  through  this  broad  land,  not  only 
in  this  city  among  his  associates  in  the  public 
councils,  not  only  in  the  old  Commonwealth  of 


THE  PUBLIC-SPIRITED  CITIZEN    241 

which  he  was  the  pride  and  the  ornament,  but  in 
many  quiet  homes,  in  many  a  cabin  of  the  poor 
and  lowly,  there  is  to-day  inexpressible  tender 
ness  and  profound  sorrow.  There  are  many  of  us 
who  have  known  and  loved  the  great  senator, 
whom  this  event  unfits  for  public  duties  or  for 
any  thoughts  other  than  those  of  that  pure  life, 
that  faithful  public  service,  that  assured  immor 
tality." 

Judge  Hoar  was  obviously  in  character  and 
ability  the  best  son  of  Massachusetts  to  take  the 
chair  that  Sumner  had  left  empty.  He  was  urged 
to  be  a  candidate  and  consented.  He  wrote  to  his 
friend  Richard  H.  Dana,  Jr.,  after  the  proposal 
had  been  made,  on  March  30,  1874  :  — 

"  I  have  no  desire  to  be  senator,  though,  as  I 
am  in  for  it  to  the  end  of  this  session  of  Con 
gress,  I  could  probably  get  a  better  hearing  in  the 
Senate  than  in  the  House,  and  so  have  no  objec 
tion  to  the  change.  But  I  am  most  deeply  inter 
ested  in  the  fight,  and  in  our  side."  He  added, 
after  speaking  of  another  candidate's  wish  for 
the  place,  "I  wish  he  could  have  the  personal 
gratification,  and  I  always  disliked  to  get  for  my 
self  anything  that  somebody  else  wanted."  An  ex 
amination  of  his  whole  record  makes  it  clear  that 
this  statement  is  literally  true. 

His  interest  in  the  matter  was  purely  patriotic. 
He  was  nominated,  but  all  the  influence  that  Gen 
eral  Butler  and  his  friends  could  exert  was  used 


242      EBENEZER  ROCKWOOD  HOAR 

against  him.  Hon.  Henry  L.  Dawes  was  elected, 
and,  in  the  following  January,  the  Judge  wrote  to 
the  same  friend  :  — 

"The  personal  relief  to  me  of  being  taken  out 
of  the  class  of  supposed  candidates  for  office  is 
very  great,  and  I  look  upon  the  speedily  approach 
ing  close  of  my  public  life  with  unmingled  satis 
faction." 

The  Judge  served  only  one  term  in  Congress, 
but  made  himself  felt  and  respected.  He  gladly 
returned  to  his  home  and  his  practice,  declining 
a  renomination.  While  in  Washington,  he  was  ap 
pointed  a  regent  of  the  Smithsonian  Institution. 

He  found  many  friends  in  Washington,  and 
carried  into  society  some  of  his  New  England 
traditions.  A  little  glimpse  of  his  social  side  is 
found  in  this  extract  from  a  letter  of  April  2, 
1874:- 

"We  have  invited  Mrs.  Ricketts  to  furnish  us 
some  pancakes  to-night  in  honor  of  the  Massachu 
setts  Fast.  I  told  her  that  I  had  eaten  pancakes 
on  that  anniversary  between  fifty  and  a  hundred 
years  and  did  not  like  to  stop." 

During  the  summer  of  1874,  in  a  letter  to  his 
cousin  Mr.  Evarts  about  the  latter's  eulogy  of 
Chief  Justice  Chase,  he  says:  "It  is  certainly 
able  and  ingenious,  and  I  admired  the  skill  with 
which  you  bring  up  in  it  things  which  you  wished 
to  say  on  your  own  account.  But  ...  I  do  not 
believe  the  sound  judgment  of  this  generation  or 


THE  PUBLIC-SPIRITED   CITIZEN    243 

the  judgment  of  history  will  agree  with  your 
estimate  of  Chase,  who  was  insincere,  selfish  and 
intriguing,  and  did  more  than  any  one  else  to  de 
grade  and  ruin  the  office  of  Chief  Justice." 

It  was  while  he  was  in  Washington  that  he 
was  asked  his  opinion  about  another  judge,  Judge 
R—  -  of  Massachusetts,  who  had  been  appointed 
to  the  Treasury  by  President  Grant.  Some  one 
at  dinner  turned  to  him  and  said,  "The  new 
Secretary  comes  from  Massachusetts,  and  you, 
Judge,  can  tell  us  all  about  him." —  "No,"  said  the 
Judge,  "  I  assure  you  his  reputation  is  wholly  na 
tional." 

The  Republicans  of  his  district  nominated  Dr. 
J.  C.  Ayer  (whose  name  was  well  known  all  over 
the  country  as  the  maker  of  certain  proprietary 
medicines)  to  succeed  Judge  Hoar,  but  he  obtained 
the  nomination  by  methods  which  were  not  ap 
proved  by  many  of  his  constituents.  The  candidate 
did  not  command  the  undivided  support  of  the 
party ;  and  among  others  who  opposed  him  was  the 
Judge's  son,  Samuel.  The  Republican  party  suf 
fered  a  crushing  defeat  at  the  election  in  1874,  and 
the  new  House  was  strongly  Democratic.  Dr.  Ayer 
shared  the  fortunes  of  his  party,  and  while  there 
was  no  organized  opposition  among  Republicans, 
there  was  very  considerable  disaffection  with 
which  Judge  Hoar  sympathized. 

Upon  the  adjournment  of  the  Forty-third  Con 
gress  he  returned  to  his  home  and  the  practice 


244      EBENEZER  ROCKWOOD   HOAR 

of  the  law,  and  some  two  months  later  he  writes 
to  Lowell :  — 

"Though  I  have  determined  never  to  speak 
again  in  public  (outside  of  what  I  do  for  a  living 
in  my  profession)  I  shall  be  at  Cambridge  on  Com 
mencement  day  and  shall  submit  to  any  require 
ment  you  make.  ...  I  will  talk  about  it  with  you 
at  the  Club  on  Saturday,  if  you  are  there." 

This  letter,  written  when  he  was  just  fifty-nine 
years  old,  and  in  the  prime  of  his  powers,  contains 
a  suggestion  of  what  seemed  to  become  almost  a  de 
termination  on  his  part  to  grow  old  and  die  early. 
Yet,  only  a  month  before  that,  he  had  presided  at 
the  centennial  celebration  of  the  Concord  Fight, 
at  which  time  President  Grant  was  his  guest.  As 
the  fourth  of  March,  1875,  was  the  last  day  on 
which  Judge  Hoar  held  public  office,  and  as 
General  Grant  and  he  met  for  the  last  time  on  any 
public  occasion  at  the  Concord  celebration,  it  is 
proper  that  a  word  or  two  should  be  said  about 
the  final  relations  between  the  two.  The  firm,  reti 
cent,  faithful  general  who  accomplished  his  great 
task  for  the  nation  and  ended  the  Civil  War,  the 
Judge  held  in  high  honor ;  he  also  liked  and  re 
spected  the  quiet  man  of  patriotic  purpose  who, 
called  to  the  Presidency  later,  said  of  his  accept 
ance,  "  I  did  not  want  it,  and  have  never  quite  for 
given  myself  for  resigning  the  command  of  the 
army  to  accept  it.  I  owed  my  honors  and  opportu 
nities  to  the  Republican  party,  and,  if  my  name 


THE  PUBLIC-SPIRITED   CITIZEN     245 

could  aid  it,  I  was  bound  to  accept."  The  Judge  was 
too  high-minded  to  cherish  any  grudge  against  the 
President  for  asking  for  his  resignation.  Of  his 
attitude  Secretary  Cox,  his  fellow  member  of  the 
Cabinet  and  esteemed  friend,  wrote :  - 

"  I  know  well  how  he  made  it  a  point  of  honor 
later  to  interpret  all  Grant's  acts  with  charity, 
and  with  strongest  purpose  to  make  them  consist 
ent  with  good  motives  ;  but  I  know  also  that  the 
events  of  the  second  term  proved  too  hard  even 
for  his  charity,  and  that  he  wrote  me,  '  I  give  it 
up ;  there 's  no  use  trying  to  drive  a  nail  into  wood 
that  won't  hold/  " 

The  disappointment  which  Grant,  the  brave  and 
true  soldier,  occasioned  when  he  was  put  by  the  na 
tion  in  the  statesman's  place,  recalls  what  Lowell 
wrote,  after  meeting  him  in  Washington  in  1870: 
"  I  liked  Grant  and  was  struck  with  the  pathos  of 
his  face,  a  puzzled  pathos,  as  of  a  man  with  a 
problem  before  him  of  which  he  does  not  under 
stand  the  terms." 

The  Judge  saw  that  Grant  was  not  a  statesman, 
and  that  he  remained  blind  to  the  mischiefs  that 
were  going  on  around  him  because  of  personal 
liking  for  unworthy  men  like  Babcock,  and  thus 
made  "  a  pretty  poor  President,"  as,  in  later  life, 
he  summed  the  matter  up  in  a  conversation  with 
Mr.  J.  F.  Rhodes.  This  was  apropos  of  the  "Whis 
key  Ring "  scandal.  But  when,  in  the  same  con 
versation,  the  Judge  was  asked  whether  he  felt 


246      EBENEZER  ROCKWOOD   HOAR 

sure  that,  in  these  suspicious  transactions,  no 
money  had  stuck  to  Grant's  fingers,  he  said,  "  I 
would  as  soon  think  Saint  Paul  had  got  some  of 
the  thirty  pieces  of  silver." 

Grant  is  reported  to  have  said  to  Thomas  J. 
Gargan  twelve  years  after  the  Judge  left  the  cap 
ital,  "  He  was,  I  think,  the  ablest  man  I  ever  met 
from  Massachusetts.  I  am  told  he  is  not  popular 
with  his  own  party  in  your  state,  but  he  is  the 
kind  of  man  to  grapple  to  with  hooks  of  steel. 
He  is  able,  honest,  and  stands  by  his  friends,  and 
that  is  the  kind  of  man  I  like." 

Senator  Hoar  tells  that  once,  while  remonstrat 
ing  with  President  Grant  about  some  proposed 
action  of  his,  he  had  said,  "  I  hope,  sir,  you  do  not 
think  that  I  would  give  you  any  advice  that  was 
not  honest  and  sincere."  Grant  answered,  oracu 
larly,  "  I  am  very  sure  your  brother,  the  Judge, 
would  not."  There  is  no  question  that  cordial  rela 
tions  continued  during  General  Grant's  life. 

The  mention  of  the  centennial  celebration  leads 
us  to  recall  with  what  proud  security  Concord 
leaned  upon  her  son  in  all  times  of  public  rejoic 
ing  and  public  sorrow,  and  the  many  cheerful, 
serious,  or  anxious  gatherings  that  came  between 
these  extremes.  His  fellow  citizen,  Judge  Keyes, 
not  so  many  years  his  junior  but  that  he  could 
remember  all  the  occasions,  at  home  and  abroad, 
in  which  Judge  Hoar's  gifts  and  powers  were  put 
to  the  test,  said  after  his  death  :  "  I  have  read  all 


THE   PUBLIC-SPIRITED   CITIZEN     247 

that  is  said  and  quoted  in  the  papers  about  him. 
There  is  one  thing  which  none  of  them  have  said 
-to  me  the  most  remarkable.  He  combined  in 
tellectual  and  executive  ability  in  a  greater  de 
gree  than  any  man  I  ever  knew.  These  powers 
are  not  apt  to  coexist  in  great  measure  in  one 


man." 


But  the  civic  occasion  when  Judge  Hoar  shone 
forth  preeminent,  was  on  that  bitter,  freezing, 
sunless  day  when  Concord,  with  fifty  thousand 
people  gathered  on  the  damp  meadows  about  the 
New  North  Bridge,  celebrated  the  great  oppor 
tunity,  so  well  improved,  which  came  to  her  and 
her  daughter  towns  one  hundred  years  before ; 
when,  in  LowelPs  words,  — 

O'er  those  red  planks,  to  snatch  her  diadem, 
Man's  Hope,  star-girdled,  sprang  with  them, 
And  over  ways  untried  the  feet  of  Doom  strode  on. 

On  that  day,  as  the  Judge  said,  when  Daniel 
French's  statue  of  the  Minute-man  had  been  un 
veiled,  "In  the  presence  of  the  President  and 
Vice-President  of  the  United  States,  in  the  pre 
sence  of  the  Governor,  the  Executive  Council,  and 
the  Legislature  of  Massachusetts,  in  the  presence 
of  the  Governor  of  each  of  the  New  England 
States,  we  have  .  .  .  dedicated  a  statue  to  the 
memory  of  the  first  soldiers  of  the  Revolution, 
upon  the  spot  where  the  first  order  was  given  to 
the  soldiers  of  the  People  to  fire  upon  the  soldiers 
of  the  King." 


248      EBENEZER  ROCKWOOD  HOAR 

In  the  thronged  tent,  while  Lowell  was  read 
ing  his  fine  ode,  some  ill-fastened  seats  fell  down 
—  even  President  Grant's  chair  toppled,  but  the 
ready  wit  of  the  President  of  the  Day  quieted  the 
startled  guests:  "Have  no  fear,  Mr.  President, 
gentlemen  and  ladies/'  said  he,  "Middlesex  County 
is  underneath  you." 

But  soon  after  the  ill-built  platform  began  to 
give  way,  people  started  to  rise  and  talk  excitedly 
and  a  panic  threatened.  Then  the  Judge  brought 
up  his  reserves,  and  his  clear  strong  voice  rose 
above  the  confusion  and  noise :  "  The  sovereign 
people  of  America  are  gentlemen,  and  will  allow 
the  exercises  to  proceed  undisturbed''  Tumult  sub 
sided  and  danger  passed  away. 

Ten  minutes  before  George  William  Curtis,  Con 
cord's  admirable  adoptive  son,  had  reached  the 
end  of  his  oration,  the  Judge,  rising,  asked  him 
to  pause,  and  said,  "Ladies  and  gentlemen,  Con 
cord  always  keeps  faith  with  Lexington.  We  pro 
mised  to  deliver  the  President  to  her  at  1  o'clock, 
and  he  is  therefore  obliged  to  leave.  Give  him 
three  parting  cheers." 

Again,  at  the  dinner  the  just  claims  of  the 
neighbor  town  were  honored  in  the  toast :  "  First 
of  those  who  fell,  in  our  memory  of  the  day  we 
celebrate,  ...  I  give  you  the  martyrs  on  Lex 
ington  Common " ;  and  he  mentioned  them  by 
name ;  then  as  of  course  no  Lexington  man  could 
be  present,  he  said,  "  The  legacy  of  glory  will  go 


THE  PUBLIC-SPIRITED  CITIZEN    249 

round  and  is  enough  for  us  all,"  and  read  the  cor 
dial  greeting  he  had  sent  from  Concord  to  Lex 
ington.  Yet,  in  private,  he  had  indulged  his  wit 
at  the  neighbor's  expense  on  the  old  point  at  issue. 
In  Lexington's  card  of  invitation  was  a  slip  in  or 
thography,  which  the  Judge  pounced  on  with  a  cer 
tain  pleasure,  remarking,  "I  have  always  scouted 
Lexington's  claims  of  having  fired  on  the  British 
troops.  Now  I  am  ready  to  admit  that  her  citizens 
have  murdered  the  King's  English." 

When  the  Judge,  at  that  cold  dinner,  which  he 
succeeded  in  keeping  warm  by  his  own  fire  of 
patriotism,  read  the  deposition  of  the  aged  Han 
nah  Leighton  about  her  parting  at  early  morning 
with  her  husband,  Captain  Davis,  when,  leaving 
his  sick  children,  he  marched  to  his  death  at  Con 
cord  Bridge,  —  the  tear  in  his  voice  brought  many 
from  the  eyes  of  his  hearers.  He  might  well  enter 
into  the  spirit  of  the  day,  when  we  remember  how 
many  of  his  forbears  came  to  Concord  Fight  in 
the  Lincoln  company,  of  which  Samuel  Hoar  was 
captain.  He  wrote  to  Lowell,  "  The  Nineteenth 
of  April  pervades  me  through  and  through." 

It  is  not  surprising  that  the  people  of  Massa 
chusetts  were  not  ready  to  admit  that  such  a  man 
could  be  spared  from  the  public  service.  If  he 
never  again  held  office,  it  was  not  for  lack  of  op 
portunity,  and  few  years  passed  when  he  did  not 
sacrifice  his  own  private  interests  at  the  call  of 
public  duty.  The  very  next  year,  1876,  made  exact- 


250      EBENEZER  ROCKWOOD  HOAR 

ing  demands  upon  his  patriotism.  A  passage  in  a 
letter  written  by  the  Judge  to  his  brother  at  Wash 
ington,  March  8,  would  imply  that  his  name  had 
again  been  considered  for  a  place  in  the  Cabinet :  — 

"  I  should  as  quick  think  of  taking  a  place  in  a 
lunatic  hospital  as  that  of  Secretary  of  War,  and 
have  not  had  the  least  misgiving  that  Grant 
had  n't  too  much  sense  to  do  so  absurd  a  thing  as 
to  offer  it  to  me.  My  sixty  years  of  life  have, 
I  hope,  given  me  some  knowledge  of  what  I  am 
unfit  for." 

The  same  letter  contains  other  interesting  pas 
sages. 

"  As  to  Senator  Edmunds,  do  not  revive  any  old 
quarrels  on  my  account.  I  have  had  occasion  to  be 
reasonably  satisfied  with  the  way  in  which  a  large 
part  of  my  old  enemies  in  the  Senate  have  come  to 
look  at  their  behavior,  and  am  willing  to  let  them 
be  as  civil  as  they  choose.  .  .  .  Dana's  nomination 
gives  great  and  I  think  almost  universal  satis 
faction  here.  Even  General  Butler  told  Sam  yes 
terday  that  '  he  thought  it  a  good  nomination/ l 

"  I  do  not  think  there  is  anything  in  the  Treaty 
of  Washington  to  prevent  the  Government  from 
retaining  the  British  indemnity  in  the  Treasury. 
I  certainly  for  one  meant  there  should  not  be.  The 
Geneva  proceedings  give  more  color  to  the  other 
view.  But  I  have  always  thought  it  would  be 

1  This  refers  to  the  nomination  of  Richard  H.  Dana  to  be 
minister  at  the  Court  of  St.  James,  which  General  Butler  actively 
opposed  and  defeated. 


THE  PUBLIC-SPIRITED   CITIZEN    251 

mean  to  keep  the  money,  and  that  the  best  course 
is  to  pay  it  out  to  the  most  meritorious  claimants 
in  succession  till  it  is  all  gone.  This  has  been  the 
general  expectation  and  it  is  better  not  to  raise 
such  a  question  unnecessarily." 

In  the  summer  of  1876,  the  Judge  and  the 
Senator  were  sent  as  delegates  to  the  National 
Republican  convention,  where  was  fought  one  of 
the  hardest  battles  in  the  history  of  the  Republi 
can  party.  James  G.  Elaine,  whose  reputation  had 
been  much  impaired  by  the  charge  that  he  had 
sold  his  influence  as  Speaker  to  a  private  corpora 
tion,  a  charge  then  only  partly  investigated,  was 
the  leading  candidate  for  the  nomination,  and  was 
fiercely  opposed  by  a  great  many  strong  Republi 
cans  who  believed  him  dishonest  and  who  sought 
to  nominate  ex-Secretary  Bristow.  Senator  Hoar 
says  in  his  "  Autobiography  "  that  neither  he  nor 
the  Judge  supported  Blaine  as  candidate  for  the 
Presidency,  but  both  voted  for  Bristow  until  the 
final  vote,  when,  with  the  majority  of  the  Massa 
chusetts  delegation,  they  voted  for  Rutherford 
B.  Hayes.  The  Senator  adds,  "  They  differed  from 
their  colleagues  in  thinking  that,  while  there  were 
many  things  in  Mr.  Elaine's  record  which  they 
disapproved,  there  was  no  evidence  that  he  was 
corrupt  or  had  done  anything  which  rendered  him 
unworthy  of  support,  if  he  should  receive  the 
nomination  of  his  party."  In  spite  of  certain  ob 
jections  which  Judge  Hoar  had  to  Mr.  Blaine,  his 


252      EBENEZER  ROCKWOOD  HOAR 

estimate  of  him,  based  upon  personal  acquaint 
ance,  made  him  disbelieve  the  charges  against  his 
integrity. 

The  Judge's  feeling  about  Elaine  is  further  ex 
plained  by  the  Senator  in  a  letter  where  he  says, 
"  Judge  Hoar  had  an  intimate  personal  friendship 
with  Elaine  and  knew  him  through  and  through." 
It  was  naturally  hard  for  him  to  disbelieve  a  man 
in  whom  he  had  such  confidence  ;  but  Senator 
Hoar  in  later  years  said  that  he  could  understand 
how  men  could  see  in  Elaine's  letters  evidence  of 
dishonesty,  and  how  they  should  therefore  find  it 
impossible  to  vote  for  him.  It  shows  the  public 
spirit  of  the  brothers,  that,  in  the  convention,  they 
steadily  voted  against  the  nomination  of  the 
friend  in  whom  they  believed,  because  they  thought 
it  unwise  for  the  party  to  make  him  its  candidate. 

The  autumn  of  1876  called  Judge  Hoar  again 
into  the  field.  So  strong  a  champion  of  honest  gov 
ernment  could  not  be  spared  when  danger  threat 
ened  the  state.  This  was  now  chronic  in  the  per 
son  of  General  Butler,  whose  creed  and  practice 
were  absolutely  opposed  to  every  instinct  of  the 
Judge  and  to  all  the  ideals  of  Massachusetts.  He 
had  been  defeated  in  1874  in  Essex  County,  which 
he  had  formerly  represented,  and  he  now  took  the 
field  in  Middlesex  and  won  the  Republican  nomi 
nation.  Judge  Hoar  therefore  consented  to  run 
as  the  candidate  of  the  Republicans  who  opposed 
Butler. 


THE  PUBLIC-SPIRITED   CITIZEN     253 

Edward  L.  Pierce  said  of  the  Judge  :  "  For  forty 
years  politicians  who  were  plotting  to  suppress 
moral  questions  or  to  advance  their  own  selfish 
scheme  had  to  take  him  into  account.  They  knew 
that  there  was  in  Concord  a  man  with  whom  they 
would  have  to  reckon,  —  one  whose  intelligence 
they  could  not  blind,  whose  moral  sense  they  could 
not  tamper  with.  Once,  when  others  slunk  away  in 
fear  and  trembling  from  an  encounter  with  the 
most  audacious  demagogue  of  the  age,  he  faced 
undaunted  a  storm  of  calumny  and  abuse,  with  a 
self -consecration  of  which  there  is  hardly  a  sublimer 
instance  in  ancient  or  modern  story." 

Though  the  last  clause  is  superlative  in  rhetoric, 
the  sacrifice  was  great.  The  Judge  had  voluntarily 
retired  from  Congress  and  by  no  means  wished  to 
go  again.  It  was  against  his  professional  interest 
to  do  so,  and  if  elected  he  would  have  had  to 
give  up  more  years  of  his  life  with  family  and 
friends  in  his  loved  Concord,  but  the  call  of  pub 
lic  duty  was  clear. 

It  had  become  all  too  evident  that  Grant,  in  his 
second  term,  was  increasingly  surrounded  by  bad 
influences.  Among  these  was  Butler.  The  Judge 
still  had  a  warm  personal  regard  for  General  Grant 
and  believed  in  his  integrity  of  purpose,  but  felt 
that  he  was  often  duped  or  led  astray  from  sound 
statesmanship.  "  The  chief  duel  between  Butler 
and  Judge  Hoar,"  says  Senator  Hoar,  "  for  influ 
ence  over  Grant  related  to  the  matter  of  finance. 


254      EBENEZER  ROCKWOOD   HOAR 

The  Judge  never  lost  an  opportunity,  from  his  first 
entry  to  his  leaving  the  House  of  Representatives, 
to  drop  seed  into  Grant's  mind  in  favor  of  sound 
finance.  But  Butler  tried  to  move  heaven  and 
earth  —  and  did  move  hell  —  to  get  Grant  to  sign 
the  inflation  bill." 

The  appointment  of  Simmons,  a  creature  of 
Butler's  and  a  low  politician,  to  be  collector  of 
the  port  of  Boston  in  1873,  against  vigorous  oppo 
sition  from  a  large  majority  of  the  Massachusetts 
delegation,  the  Governor  and  many  of  the  most 
eminent  men  in  the  state,  had  increased  the  alarm 
concerning  Butler's  malign  influence.  Warned  by 
his  recent  defeat  in  Essex,  he  had  promised  the 
Republican  party  to  abandon  his  "fiat  money " 
doctrines  (a  pledge  which  he  broke),  and  won  in 
the  convention.  It  is  not  strange  that  many  of 
the  outraged  Republicans  bolted  and  appealed 
to  Judge  Hoar  to  be  their  champion.  He  felt 
with  them  that  the  nomination  of  Butler  was 
intolerable  and  accepted  the  disagreeable  duty. 
In  doing  this  he  taught  many  young  men  of 
Massachusetts  that  their  allegiance  was  due  to 
their  country  rather  than  to  their  party,  and  that 
if  the  party  nominated  a  corrupt  man  for  office, 
they  ought  to  oppose  him.  He  would  not  ask  an 
other  to  do  what  he  would  not  do  himself.  When 
they  applied  his  teaching  and  followed  his  example 
a  few  years  later,  he  did  not  see  with  their  eyes, 
and  was  perhaps  a  little  inclined  to  think  that 


THE   PUBLIC-SPIRITED   CITIZEN     255 

they  should  follow  his  judgment  as  to  the  exist 
ence  of  any  emergency  which  justified  such  ac 
tion. 

Charles  Francis  Adams,  Jr.,  wrote:  "The  result 
only  demonstrated  once  more  the  force  of  party 
discipline  in  popular  elections."  Judge  Hoar  had 
1955  votes  and  was  defeated  by  a  vote  of  nearly 
six  to  one,  Butler  having  12,000  votes.  It  should 
however  be  said  that  the  people,  not  yet  appreci 
ating  the  failure  of  corrupt  rule  by  cheap  adven 
turers  who  misled  and  used  the  ignorant  f  reedmen 
of  many  Southern  states,  and  alarmed  by  the 
admission  of  many  reconstructed  Confederates  to 
Congress,  were  honestly  deceived  by  Butler's  pro 
clamation  that  he  went  to  fight  the  Southern  Briga 
diers  in  Washington. 

An  especial  reason  for  the  Judge's  anxiety 
he  told  in  his  later  years  to  Mr.  Rhodes,  the 
historian.  He  said  that  during  the  outcry  over 
the  nomination  of  Simmons,  when  the  Judge  and 
Butler  were  in  Washington,  the  latter  said  to  him, 
"  I  have  a  hold  over  Grant  and  he  dare  not  with 
draw  Simmons's  name."  The  Judge,  who  still  con 
tinued  friendly  relations  with  the  President,  went 
to  him  in  private  and  urged  him  to  withdraw  so 
unfit  a  name,  but  to  no  effect.  Then,  hoping,  no 
doubt,  for  an  indignant  denial,  he  squarely  said 
to  him  "  Butler  says  he  has  a  hold  over  you." 
Grant  set  his  teeth,  then  drew  down  his  jaw,  and 
without  changing  countenance  looked  him  in  the 


256      EBENEZER  ROCKWOOD   HOAR 

eyes,  but  said  no  word.  A  long  and  painful  silence 
ensued,  and  the  Judge  went  away. 

Judge  Hoar  threw  himself  into  the  campaign 
and  spoke  frequently,  assisted  among  others  by 
several  young  men  who  were  novices  in  politics, 
but  who  felt  the  importance  of  defeating  General 
Butler  if  possible.  It  was  at  Leicester  during  this 
contest  that  the  Judge,  in  the  course  of  a  speech, 
said  that  it  was  a  source  of  consolation  to  him  that 
in  his  native  county  of  Middlesex  it  had  been 
found  impossible  to  assemble  a  convention  which 
would  make  the  nomination  of  Butler  unanimous. 
"  Yes,  and  how  many  opposed  it  ?  "  said  a  sneer 
ing  opponent  in  the  audience.  "  I  don't  remember," 
said  the  Judge.  "Would  you  like  to  know?" 
came  the  next  question.  "  I  should,"  said  the 
Judge.  "Well,  there  were  just  ten,"  was  the  reply. 
"Precisely  the  number  of  righteous  men  that 
would  have  availed  to  save  Sodom,"  was  the  in 
stant  and  complete  rejoinder. 

It  is  interesting  and  amusing  to  find  how,  half  in 
fun  and  half  in  earnest,  the  Judge  was  constantly 
expressing  his  antipathy  to  Democrats,  and  even  to 
Independents.  As  late  as  May  10,  a  few  months 
before  he  was  going  to  lead  an  independent  move 
ment,  we  find  him  writing  to  his  brother  about  his 
argument  on  the  impeachment  of  Secretary  Bel- 
knap.  "Your name  and  praise  is  in  all  the  churches, 
and  even  in  'the  synagogues  of  Satan/  to  wit:  the 
Democratic  and  Independent  newspapers." 


THE  PUBLIC-SPIRITED   CITIZEN     257 

The  following  September,  when  his  old  friend 
Charles  Francis  Adams,  who  had  helped  with  him 
to  found  the  Republican  party,  was  nominated 
for  governor  by  the  Democrats,  he  wrote  his 
brother :  — 

"I  was  asked  to-day  what  I  thought  of  the 
Democratic  nomination  for  governor.  I  replied 
that  it  reminded  me  of  a  '  little  story ' :  - 

"  The  late  Judge  Warren  said  that  when  he  be 
gan  the  practice  of  law  in  New  Bedford,  he  was 
employed  to  try  a  case  in  the  Court  of  Common 
Pleas  by  a  man  of  not  very  good  reputation.  His 
client  gave  him  a  list  of  witnesses  by  whom  he 
expected  to  prove  his  case,  but  he  had  not  seen 
them  until  he  sat  down  in  court  to  try  it.  When 
he  called  them  to  be  sworn,  to  his  consternation 
there  came  forward  eight  or  ten  of  the  sorriest- 
looking  ragamuffins  and  topers  that  were  ever  col 
lected.  He  turned  to  his  client,  and  whispered, '  For 
God's  sake,  haven't  you  anybody  else  than  these 
fellows?'  Just  then  the  door  of  the  court-room 
opened,  and  Mr.  William  Rotch,  one  of  the  wealth 
iest  merchants  and  most  respected  citizens  of  the 
town,  walked  in.  '  Call  Mr.  Rotch/  whispered  the 
client  in  reply.  '  Why,  what  does  he  know  about 
your  case  ? '  ^  Oh  !  he  does  n't  know  anything,  but 
he  will  give  a  kind  of  air  to  the  rest  of  'em.' " 

For  the  rest  of  his  life  Judge  Hoar  was  to  have 
the  happiest  of  family  life  among  his  friends  and 


258      EBENEZER  ROCKWOOD   HOAR 

neighbors,  —  for  the  town,  in  those  pleasant  sim 
pler  days,  seemed  but  a  larger  family,  —  enjoying 
the  practice  of  his  profession,  free  from  office  and 
from  public  duties  except  to  his  town,  his  loved 
college,  and  those  which  might  be  involved  in 
the  Boston  Bar  Association,  of  which  he  was  a 
founder  and  soon  after  president.  Conscious  that 
he  had  passed  his  physical  prime,  and  never  in 
quite  comfortable  health,  he  seems  to  have  felt 
some  anxiety  in  returning  to  the  practice  of  law. 
This  appears  in  a  letter  which  he  wrote  to  a  friend 
when  some  malevolent  politician  had  published  a 
charge  that  he  had  made  a  gift  to  the  President : 
"I  never  made  Grant  any  present  whatever  in  my 
life.  .  .  .  The  fact  is  that  a  large  family,  and  the 
giving  up  most  of  my  active  life  to  public  service 
more  honorable  than  lucrative,  have  left  me  little 
ability  to  make  presents  to  anybody,  and  the  bur 
dens  and  charities  of  the  war  took  all  and  more 
than  all  I  could  spare,  so  that,  however  inexplica 
ble  my  appointment  as  Attorney-General  may  have 
been,  it  was  not  bought." 

His  friend  Mr.  Francis  E.  Parker  had  engaged 
an  office  for  him  in  Pemberton  Square,  and  it  is 
said  that  when  the  Judge  learned  that  the  rent  was 
one  thousand  dollars  a  year  he  stood  aghast ;  but 
Mr.  Parker  told  him  he  need  have  no  fear,  that 
he  would  have  all  the  lucrative  practice  he  desired, 
and  so  it  proved,  but  for  one  abatement,  mentioned 
in  this  clipping  from  a  newspaper  of  that  time:- 


THE   PUBLIC-SPIRITED   CITIZEN     259 

"  I  suppose  he  must  have  an  income  from  his  legal 
practice  that  amounts  to  at  least  $25,000  a  year, 
easy.  He  is  somewhat  of  an  old  fogy  in  the  matter 
of  charging.  He  is  a  very  light  charger  .  .  .  too 
old-fashioned  for  his  own  good.  He  is  probably  as 
able  a  jurist  as  ever  lived  ...  in  New  England, 
and  is,  by  all  odds,  the  ablest  man  at  the  bar  now. 
*  .  .  Why,  if  Butler  or  Evarts,  or  some  of  those 
New  York  fellows  were  making  charges  for  the 
opinions  that  Judge  Hoar  gives  from  day  to  day, 
they  would  charge  $1000  at  least,  where  he  charges 
...  a  few  hundred  dollars.  I  tell  you  that  his 
charges  are  so  moderate  that  many  corporations 
go  to  him  for  opinions,  when  they  don't  really 
need  them.  Judge  Hoar's  opinions  are  not  'cheap ' 
in  any  other  way,  though,  and  you  can  pin  your 
faith  on  them  every  time." 

Chief  Justice  Field  said :  "  He  had  all  the  law 
practice  he  wanted ;  it  was  of  the  best  kind,  and 
took  as  much  of  his  time  as  he  wished  to  give  to 
his  profession.  He  would  not,  I  think,  have  en 
joyed  an  overwhelmingly  large  practice,  for  he 
wished  time  for  conference  with  his  friends,  for 
meditating  upon  many  things,  for  enjoying  many 
things,  and  for  reading  what  he  chose. 

"His  arguments  were  like  his  opinions, — not 
long,  very  clear,  remarkably  strong  in  analysis,  and 
persuasive  in  their  sound  sense.  He  used  great  di 
rectness  and  simplicity  of  statement,  and  he  relied 
on  his  wit  to  point  or  enliven  the  argument." 


260      EBENEZER  ROCKWOOD   HOAR 

The  Presidential  campaign  of  1876,  with  its 
doubtful  result,  left  the  country  face  to  face  with 
one  of  the  greatest  crises  in  its  history,  and  the 
Judge  was,  of  necessity,  deeply  interested  in  the 
outcome,  but  his  interest  was  expressed  in  private 
letters  and  conversations  of  which  no  record  re 
mains.  In  a  letter  of  January  29,  1877,  congratu 
lating  his  brother  on  his  election  to  the  Senate  of 
the  United  States,  he  says:  "  I  think  you  may  take 
this  as  the  indorsement  by  the  state  of  your  Presi 
dential  settlement,  which,  though  without  consti 
tutional  authority,  is  a  practical  American  device 
to  get  over  a  difficulty  otherwise  insuperable,  and, 
like  Jefferson's  purchase  of  Louisiana,  is  to  be  up 
held  by  the  agreement  beforehand  and  the  acqui 
escence  afterwards  of  the  whole  people  who  may 
thus  modify  their  Constitution  if  they  choose." 

Of  his  brother's  election  he  says :  "  It  is  the 
most  important  declaration  of  the  state  on  the 
right  side  since  Sumner  and  Andrew. 

"  I  am  the  more  happy  that  it  proves  that  my 
campaign  last  fall  has  done  no  harm,  though  Sim 
mons  and  Butler  have  strained  every  nerve  to  de 
feat  you." 

A  few  days  later,  under  date  of  February  1,  he 
writes  to  his  brother  again  :  "  I  have  learned  that 
Butler  devoted  himself  with  all  his  power  to  de 
feat  your  election,  sending  for  men  to  his  office, 
and  employing  every  agency  he  could  think  of, 
and  then  with  his  chronic  propensity  to  impudent 


THE  PUBLIC-SPIRITED  CITIZEN    261 

lying,  told  reporters  that  he  took  no  part  in  the 
fight,  that  it  was  no  quarrel  of  his,  and  that  if  it 
had  been,  the  result  might  have  been  different." 

Judge  Hoar  maintained  in  private  life  a  watch 
ful  interest  in  public  affairs,  and  as  soon  as  Presi 
dent  Hayes  was  inaugurated  began  to  strive  for 
the  emancipation  of  Massachusetts  from  But- 
lerism.  March  9,  1877,  he  writes  to  his  brother  : 
"Now  can  we  purify  the  public  service  by  a  change 
in  the  Boston  Custom  House  ?  " 

March  12,  1877,  he  writes  again  :  "Everybody 
(whom  we  care  for)  is  delighted  with  the  inau 
gural,  the  Cabinet  and  the  way  things  are  work 
ing  with  Wheeler,  Evarts,  McCrary,  Devens,  and 
Schurz ;  thorough-going  Massachusetts  Republi 
cans  ought  to  be  contented  with  the  executive 
end  of  the  government,  and  it  seems  as  if  Hayes 
would  be  able  to  accomplish  what  Grant  had  so 
fine  a  chance  to  try  eight  years  ago,  and  which  I 
tried  so  hard  to  have  him  attempt. 

"  I  receive  quantities  of  letters  asking  for  help 
with  you  and  Evarts  in  getting  offices,  but  re 
spectfully  decline  to  avail  myself  of  (or  rather  to 
transfer  to  other  people)  my  personal  relations. 

"  The  cleaning  out  of  Simmons  however  seems 
to  me  an  obligation  to  public  morality  and  to  come 
exactly  within  the  President's  line  of  policy,  —  as  a 
man  who  has  used  his  official  power  exclusively 
to  further  one  man's  personal  ambitions  and  hates, 
and  as  owing  his  own  appointment  to  the  assump- 


262      EBENEZER  ROCKWOOD   HOAR 

tion  of  executive  power  by  a  member  of  Congress. 
He  has  got  rid  of  almost  every  respectable  man  in 
the  Custom  House,  who  would  not  wear  his  mas 
ter's  collar.  .  .  .  The  papers  say  that  Butler  has 
told  the  President  that  he  had  no  axes  to  grind, 
no  papers  to  present,  and  that  he  should  support 
the  Administration,  which  being  interpreted  is 
that  he  has  filled  every  Federal  office  accessible 
to  him  with  his  creatures,  and  wants  to  stipulate 
that  they  shall  not  be  disturbed." 

The  public  service  still  sought  him,  and  a  few 
days  later,  on  March  21,  Mr.  Evarts  wrote  to  him 
a  letter  from  which  the  following  is  taken  :  — 

"  At  the  moment  I  have  the  particular  object  of 
stating  to  you  that  the  President  has  decided  to 
send  a  commission  of  prominent  public  men  to 
Louisiana  to  ascertain  the  prospects  of,  and  the 
obstacles  to,  securing  a  single  state  government 
in  Louisiana.  Everybody  desires  that  you  should 
be  one  of  this  commission,  and  your  proposed  as 
sociates  would  be  Vice-President  Wheeler  or  (if 
he  should  be  unable  to  go)  President  Woolsey, 
Judge  Charles  B.  Lawrence  of  Illinois  (who  was 
supported  for  the  Senate  against  Judge  Davis), 
Governor  Brown  of  Tennessee  (a  Democrat),  and 
Harlan  of  Kentucky,  Bristow's  friend. 

"  This  commission  will  go  under  public  instruc 
tions  and  its  examinations  and  conciliations  will  be 
of  a  public  character. 

"The  commission  will  be  desired  to  go  as  soon 


THE   PUBLIC-SPIRITED   CITIZEN     263 

as  can  be  arranged  and  to  return  as  promptly  as 
its  objects  can  be  secured.  The  service  is  pri 
marily  a  patriotic  one,  but  it  is  expected  that  pro 
vision  will  hereafter  be  made  for  the  expense  of 
the  service. 

"  I  hope  you  will  approve  this  measure,  and  will 
join  in  it,  for  without  you  we  shall  miss  its  best 
value  and  efficiency  in  the  public  esteem." 

This  offer  he  was  unable  to  accept.  On  June  26 
he  was  offered  the  position  of  counsel  for  the 
United  States  before  the  Fishery  Commission.  Mr. 
Evarts  wrote :  - 

"  Both  Mr.  Foster  and  Mr.  Kellogg  write  me 
urgently  that  you  ought  to  undertake  the  service. 
They  both  understand  your  aversion  to  the  propo 
sition,  but  as  usual  with  you,  they  think  you  should 
sacrifice  yourself  for  the  public  good.  ...  I 
hardly  suppose  you  will  entertain  the  proposition, 
but  could  not  refuse  to  take  your  solid  sense  on  the 
subject." 

The  Judge  did  not  feel  that  it  was  his  duty  to 
undertake  this  service,  which  involved  six  months' 
work  and  a  considerable  absence  from  home,  so 
this  offer  was  declined. 

In  January,  1878,  Mr.  Blaine  made  a  speech  to 
the  Senate  on  the  occasion  of  presenting  a  statue 
given  by  the  state  of  Maine  to  be  placed  in  the  col 
lection  at  the  capitol,  and  in  the  course  of  this 
speech  attacked  Massachusetts  very  sharply  on 
account  of  her  attitude  during  the  War  of  1812. 


264      EBENEZER  ROCKWOOD   HOAR 

Senator  Hoar  made  an  extended  reply,  saying 
among  other  things  (in  allusion  to  the  fact  that 
Massachusetts  had  opposed  the  nomination  of  Mr. 
Elaine  for  the  Presidency  in  the  last  Republican 
National  convention) :  "  I  regret  that  certain 
recent  historic  judgments  of  the  people  of  Mas 
sachusetts  have  so  far  disturbed  the  Senator  from 
Maine  that  he  feels  called  upon  to  make  them 
bear  not  only  their  own  sins,  but  the  sins  of 
their  ancestors."  The  speeches  were  printed  in 
the  morning  papers  of  the  next  day,  and  shortly 
afterward  a  young  lawyer  asked  Judge  Hoar 
how  he  liked  his  brother's  speech.  He  replied 
that  he  liked  it,  but  added:  "If  I  had  been 
there,  I  should  not  have  made  exactly  that  reply. 
When  Mr.  Elaine  ended,  I  should  have  risen  and 
said,  '  In  reply  to  what  the  Senator  from  Maine 
has  said  about  Massachusetts,  I  am  not  aware  that 
I  have  anything  to  say  now,  but  I  desire,  with  the 
unanimous  consent  of  the  Senate,  to  introduce  a 
bill  giving  to  the  Senator  from  Maine  a  life  pen 
sion  as  the  last  survivor  of  the  War  of  1812.' ' 

The  letter  to  his  brother  from  which  the  follow 
ing  extracts  are  taken  was  written  after  this  inci 
dent  and  is  dated  January  29, 1878.  The  displace 
ment  of  Simmons  is  still  uppermost  in  his  thoughts, 
for  he  says  :  - 

"  If  Simmons  is  reappointed  I  think  my  inter 
est  in  this  administration  will  be  at  an  end,  and 
so  will  enough  of  others  in  Massachusetts  to  leave 


THE   PUBLIC-SPIRITED   CITIZEN     265 

a  pretty  poor  show  ;  but  I  cannot  believe  such  a 
mean  result  is  to  happen. 

"  As  for  being  satisfied  with  you,  the  two  things 
that  have  helped  to  keep  me  alive  for  the  last 
week  have  been  the  nomination  of  Sargent  as 
postmaster  at  Methuen,  and  your  reply  to  Elaine, 
who,  it  seems  to  me,  must  be  getting  insane.  I  won 
der  if  he  thinks  that  road  leads  anywhere." 

Sargent's  nomination  interested  him  because  it 
was  the  reappointment  of  a  good  officer  whom 
General  Butler  was  trying  to  displace.  His  efforts 
against  Simmons  were  successful  and  the  Boston 
Custom  House  was  redeemed. 

He  continued  to  devote  himself  to  his  profes 
sion,  but  his  health  was  not  good,  as  is  shown  by  a 
letter  written  June  5, 1878,  from  which  the  follow 
ing  passage  is  quoted  :  - 

"  Your  inference  that  I  am  well,  because  I  tried  a 
long  and  tough  case,  is,  I  am  sorry  to  say,  not  justi 
fied  by  the  facts,  though  I  am  better  than  when  I 
last  saw  you  —  but  I  have  struck  work  till  Sep 
tember,  and  intend  to  devote  myself  to  getting 
well.  .  .  . 

:<  The  Democratic  landslide  does  not  disturb  or 
alarm  me.  It  is  going  to  do  us  no  harm,  unless 
something  more  comes  than  is  yet  visible." 

In  1879  he  was  chosen  president  of  the  Boston 
Bar  Association,  which  he  had  helped  to  found  in 
1876,  and  he  presided  at  its  dinner.  His  little 
speeches  on  that  occasion  made  it  especially  bril- 


266      EBENEZER  ROCKWOOD   HOAR 

liant,  and  of  all  that  was  said  by  the  various 
speakers  only  what  fell  from  his  lips  has  dwelt  in 
the  memory  of  at  least  one  among  his  listeners. 
He  began  by  alluding  to  the  difficulties  of  his 
position  and  freely  translated  for  the  occasion, 
"Nullum  tempus  occurrit  Regi"  as  meaning,  "The 
King  does  n't  have  any  kind  of  a  time." 

It  was  thus  that  he  introduced  Sidney  Bartlett, 
the  oldest  member  of  the  bar  in  active  practice : — 

"And  now,  gentlemen,  I  have  the  great  pleasure 
of  introducing  to  you  a  man  who  has  enjoyed  the 
singular  felicity  of  being  the  leader  of  this  Bar 
for  fifty  years.  Of  him  may  be  said  what  was  said 
to  the  old  French  lady,  who  in  extreme  age  still 
preserved  much  of  the  charm  and  vivacity  of  her 
youth,  and  who  said  to  an  old  admirer,  'Pray,  how 
old  do  you  think  I  am? '  '  Ah  ! '  said  he,  'Madame, 
you  are  twenty, — for  the  fourth  time/  "  He  made 
the  dinner  memorable  among  occasions  of  this 
kind. 

The  election  of  1880  brought  Mr.  Blaine  into  the 
Cabinet  as  Secretary  of  State  under  President 
Garfield,  and  the  early  months  of  the  administra 
tion  were  marked  by  the  contest  over  the  New 
York  offices,  which  led  to  the  resignation  of  the 
New  York  senators,  Conkling  and  Platt.  Apropos 
of  this  incident,  the  Judge  wrote  to  Mr.  Blaine, 
alluding  to  a  passage  between  Blaine  and  Conkling 
when  both  were  members  of  the  House,  during 
which  Blaine  spoke  of  Conkling  as  "a  turkey  cock": 


THE  PUBLIC-SPIRITED   CITIZEN    267 

MY  DEAR  MR.  ELAINE,  —  In  accordance  with 
the  time-honored  custom  of  our  Puritan  ancestors, 
the  demise  of  the  cock  turkey  has  been  followed 
by  a  New  England  Thanksgiving. 

When  the  nomination  of  Mr.  Elaine  to  the 
Presidency  led  a  great  many  prominent  Republi 
cans,  like  George  William  Curtis,  President  Eliot, 
Carl  Schurz  and  others,  including  the  Judge's  sons 
Samuel,  Charles,  and  Sherman,  to  leave  the  Re 
publican  candidate  and  support  Grover  Cleveland, 
the  Judge  adhered  to  the  Republican  nominees,  and 
in  a  speech  at  Worcester  on  July  22  of  that  year 
asserted  his  firm  belief  in  Elaine's  honesty  and 
praised  his  sense,  versatility  and  resourcefulness. 
He  was  much  troubled  that  neither  of  his  sons 
could  stomach  the  nomination,  but,  as  he  had  done 
in  the  Free-Soil  and  again  in  the  Butler  time, 
they  "bolted,"  and  voted  for  the  Democratic  candi 
date.  After  the  war,  in  spite  of  the  valiant  and 
patriotic  service  in  the  field  and  at  home  of  the 
"War"  Democrats,  the  Judge's  feeling  was  al 
ways  that  expressed  by  Horace  Greeley  of  that 
party  before  by  a  strange  accident  he  became  their 
candidate  :  "  I  do  not  say  that  all  Democrats  are 
rascals,  but  it  is  indisputably  true  that  all  rascals 
are  Democrats." 

Sherman  Hoar  told  a  friend  that,  on  the  day 
after  the  election,  when  the  papers  showed  Elaine's 
defeat,  his  father  admitted  that  there  had  been 


268      EBENEZER  ROCKWOOD   HOAR 

some  reasons  why  he  was  an  undesirable  candidate, 
or  words  to  that  effect.  But  whatever  faults  might 
be  found  in  the  dominant  party,  and  in  spite  of  the 
sad  scandals  that  began  to  appear,  especially  dur 
ing  Grant's  second  term,  its  glorious  record  of  sav 
ing  the  country  in  the  long  years  of  utter  peril,  and 
of  wiping  from  it  the  stain  of  slavery,  commanded 
thereafter  the  Judge's  affectionate  allegiance,  and 
while  he  wished  to  keep  it  pure,  he  deplored  any 
departure  from  it,  and  had  no  patience  with  the 
supposition  that  any  real  good  could  come  from 
the  other  side.  His  attitude  at  the  time  was  thus 
described  by  his  brother,  Senator  Hoar :  — 

"He  never  took  our  Mugwumps  as  seriously  as 
I  do.  I  always  treated  them  as  persons  who  were 
giving  their  support  to  great  public  crimes  and 
politically  were  to  be  treated  accordingly.  Rock- 
wood  had  for  them  a  sort  of  amused  tolerance, 
and,  where  they  behaved  well  and  had  some  per 
sonally  agreeable  qualities,  liked  to  see  them  and 
associate  with  them.  I  have  no  doubt  that  if  he 
had  not  withdrawn  from  public  responsibilities, 
and  had,  these  last  few  years,  felt  any  obligation 
on  his  part  to  take  a  personal  share  in  saving  the 
country  from  disaster  and  in  promoting  good  re 
sults,  he  would  have  felt  about  them  a  good  deal 
as  I  do.  While  I  always  agreed  with  my  brother 
in  thinking  that  they  never  did  or  were  likely  to 
do  much  political  mischief,  I  think  they  have  been 
quite  mischievous,  especially  those  of  them  who 


THE  PUBLIC-SPIRITED  CITIZEN    269 

had  what  is  called  high  social  position,  or  had 
some  literary  capacity,  in  perverting  and  mislead 
ing  young  men  who  might  otherwise  be  useful  to 
the  country." 

So  might  Daniel  Webster  have  spoken  of  Sam 
uel  Hoar  and  his  sons  in  1848. 

In  this  connection  should  be  quoted  the  Judge's 
remark  in  1884 :  "I  have  no  objection  to  the  Mug 
wumps  going  out,  but  they  need  not  slam  the 
door  after  them,"  and  his  reply  to  one  of  them 
who  was  inveighing  against  the  corrupt  men  who 
had  attached  themselves  to  the  Republican  party : 
"  Remember  that  a  ship  is  not  steered  by  its  bar 
nacles." 

The  campaign  of  1884  found  him  nearly  three 
score  and  ten,  and  from  that  to  the  end  he  led  a 
peaceful  life,  never  travelling  far  from  Concord, 
practising  law  in  Boston,  serenely  enjoying  his 
family  and  his  friends,  taking  a  keen  interest  as 
wise  critic  and  counsellor  in  the  political  affairs 
of  the  state  and  nation,  always  ready  to  do  his 
duty  in  his  town  and  church,  until  1887  president 
of  the  Overseers  of  Harvard  College  and  always 
a  welcome  figure  at  its  festivals,  and  until  the 
last  a  constant  attendant  at  the  meetings  of  the 
Saturday  Club.  It  was  the  serene  evening  of  a 
well-spent  life,  and  he  had  in  abundant  measure 
"  all  that  should  accompany  old  age." 

Among  the  more  prominent  cases  in  which  he 
was  concerned  during  that  time  was  the  case  of 


270      EBENEZER  ROCKWOOD   HOAR 

Egbert  C.  Smyth  against  the  Visitors  of  the  An- 
dover  Theological  Seminary,  which  he  argued  on 
October  14, 1890. 

Professor  Smyth  had  maintained  and  inculcated 
doctrines  which  were  more  liberal  than  the  Visitors 
approved,  and  they  removed  him  from  his  pro 
fessorship.  He  appealed  to  the  Supreme  Court  of 
Massachusetts,  and  Judge  Hoar  was  retained  as 
senior  counsel  for  the  Visitors.  It  was  in  some  re 
spects  a  peculiar  position,  since  it  compelled  him, 
a  prominent  Unitarian,  to  take  ground  against  the 
professor  of  liberal  views  and  in  favor  of  those 
who  adhered  to  the  strictest  tenets  of  Orthodoxy, 
with  which  he  had  no  intellectual  sympathy.  He 
felt  the  humor  of  the  situation,  and  could  not  re 
frain  from  at  least  hinting  at  it. 

Thus  at  the  outset  of  his  argument  he  said : 
"  There  is,  as  I  understand  it,  no  question  of  theo 
logy  to  be  determined  by  the  Court.  I  should  feel 
very  much  embarrassed  if  I  thought  there  were. 
If  I  were  to  undertake  to  discuss  and  point  out 
the  differences  between  the  doctrines  of  the  An- 
dover  Creed  and  the  publications  of  Dr.  Smyth,  I 
should  feel  like  the  Scotch  old  woman  who,  when 
asked  if  she  understood  the  sermon,  replied,  'Wad 
I  ha'e  the  presumption  ?' " 

He  rested  his  argument  upon  the  proposition 
that  the  founders  of  the  Seminary  attached  to 
their  foundation  the  condition,  that  the  professors 
who  taught  should  declare  their  faith  in  a  certain 


THE  PUBLIC-SPIRITED  CITIZEN    271 

creed,  and  should  teach  according  to  it,  saying : 
"When  the  morning  stars  sang  together,  the  An- 
dover  Creed,  in  these  people's  estimation,  was 
the  song."  This  proposition  he  illustrated  as  fol 
lows: — 

"Suppose  somebody  had  founded  an  asylum  for 
the  blind,  and  the  founder  had  come  to  the  conclu 
sion  —  not  perhaps  sufficiently  considering  the 
scriptural  caution  about  '  the  blind  leading  the 
blind  ' —  that  it  was  best  to  have  the  instructors 
and  teachers  and  managers  all  themselves  blind 
people ;  he  had  appointed  what  they  had  to  do, 
and  thought  that  their  sympathies  and  their  in 
fluence  on  their  blind  pupils  would  be  better,  and 
therefore  he  provided  an  institution,  to  which  his 
money  was  to  be  given,  to  educate  the  blind,  and 
with  a  provision  that  nobody  but  the  blind  should 
be  professors  or  teachers  in  it.  And  suppose  that 
were  carried  out,  and  having  been  for  sixty  or 
seventy  years  in  full  operation,  the  asylum  having 
a  board  of  Visitors  to  see  that  that  provision 
was  carried  out,  and  one  of  the  teachers  should 
come  to  one  of  the  Visitors  and  say,  'I  have  been 
experimenting  on  my  own  case,  I  have  got  some 
thing  which  has  made  plain  this  difficulty ;  an 
Arabian  doctor  has  prepared  and  brought  with 
him  a  drug,  and  I  have  been  rubbing  it  on  my  own 
eyes  and  I  already  begin  to  see  a  little.  I  see 
men  like  trees  walking.  I  think  I  may  recover 
my  sight.  I  want  to  try  it  on  the  pupils.  Their 


272      EBENEZER  ROCKWOOD   HOAR 

deprivation,  like  my  own,  appeals  of  course  to  my 
tenderest  sympathies,  and  I  want  to  do  it.'  Says 
the  Visitor,  '  My  friend,  if  you  can  restore  the 
sight  of  a  single  pupil,  you  ought  to  do  it.  Do  it, 
in  God's  name.  If  you  can  get  your  own,  I  am  de 
lighted  to  have  you.  It  is  very  much  better  than 
your  present  condition ;  but  I  must  say  to  you 
that  the  minute  you  begin  to  see,  you  have  got  to 
leave  this  establishment/ 

"It  would  not  follow  because  another  creed 
was  much  better,  that  it  can  be  allowed  here. 
Touchstone  said  of  Audrey,  'a  poor  thing  but 
mine  own/  This  creed  is  what  these  founders  be 
lieved  in." 

He  quoted  "a  wise  and  witty  clergyman"  as 
saying :  "  This  whole  Andover  question  seems  to 
me  to  be  merely  an  instance  of  the  right  man  in 
the  wrong  place,"  and  said,  "  The  expression  puts 
in  a  nutshell  what  I  think  may  strike  your  Honors 
and  strike  a  large  number  of  the  community  as 
true." 

The  argument  was  strong  and  convincing,  but 
his  clients  did  not  think  his  illustrations  felicitous, 
and  doubtless  thought,  if  they  did  not  say,  "Call 
you  this  backing  of  your  friends  ? "  The  whole 
argument  is  preserved,  but  these  passages  are  il 
lustrations  of  the  Judge's  method,  which  pleased 
a  great  many  at  the  time.  He  did  his  duty  to  his 
clients,  but  one  may  be  pardoned  for  suspecting 
that  his  tongue  at  intervals  trembled  on  the  edge 


THE  PUBLIC-SPIRITED  CITIZEN    273 

of  his  cheek.  It  should  be  added  that  he  gave  the 
very  considerable  fee  which  he  received  in  this 
case  to  the  Unitarian  Association,  an  apology  per 
haps  for  appearing  on  the  wrong  side. 


CHAPTER  VII 

PERSONAL  REMINISCENCES 

JUDGE  SULLIVAN,  who  studied  law  in  Judge  Hoar's 
office  during  the  last  years  of  his  practice,  tells  a 
story  which  will  commend  itself  to  lawyers.  He 
says:  "I  helped  him  prepare  a  brief  for  the  full 
bench,  and  as  he  was  going  to  court,  I  said,  '  I 
suppose  I  can  be  of  no  use  to  you  during  the  argu 
ment';  to  which  the  Judge  replied,  'Well,  you 
can  at  least  sit  by  me,  and  hate  the  other  side  ! ' ' 

Judge  Allen  says  that  once  some  lawyer  with 
a  shady  reputation  had  taken  a  high  moral  tone 
in  commenting  on  the  conduct  of  some  party 
on  the  other  side,  and  Judge  Hoar  remarked 
afterwards  that  he  was  reminded  of  King  James, 
in  "  The  Fortunes  of  Nigel,"  who  said,  "  It  was 
grand  to  hear  Baby  Charles  laying  down  the  guilt 
of  dissimulation,  and  Steenie  lecturing  on  the 
turpitude  of  incontinence."  The  circle  of  which 
the  Judge  was  a  member  was  "  letter-perfect " 
in  the  Waverley  Novels. 

Judge  Allen  also  tells  the  following :  "  In  earlier 
days,  I  suppose  he  was  not  in  the  habit  of  suppress 
ing  a  keen  retort,  if  occasion  called  for  it.  But  in 
later  years  there  was  a  change  in  this  respect.  I 
well  remember  one  instance  while  I  was  sitting 


PERSONAL  REMINISCENCES        275 

with  the  full  court  as  judge,  and  he  was  counsel, 
and  his  opponent  went  out  of  his  way  to  make 
some  statement  which  would  naturally  invite  a 
caustic  reply.  I  observed  the  expression  of  his 
face,  and  expected  when  his  turn  came  to  hear 
something  pungent.  But  in  his  own  argument  he 
made  no  allusion  whatever  to  what  had  been  said. 
He  argued  the  law  points  and  sat  down.  I  have  an 
idea  that  the  humor  of  the  situation  (as  his  oppo 
nent  was  by  no  means  his  equal)  overcame  all 
wish  to  make  a  stinging  reply.  But,  from  what 
ever  reason,  it  is  quite  certain  that  in  later  years 
he  indulged  less  in  that  kind  of  fencing  than 
formerly.  I  presume  the  above  is  but  one  of  many 
similar  instances." 

A  lawyer  associated  with  him  as  his  junior 
gives,  as  his  distinguishing  trait  in  advocacy, 
"  his  power  of  reducing  his  own  case  and  his  op 
ponent's  case  to  one  or  two  positions,  and  present 
ing  these  with  a  sharp  vividness  which  burned 
them  into  the  minds  of  the  court  or  jury.  This 
was,  in  fact,  but  one  exhibition  of  the  power 
which  lay  behind  his  wit.  ...  In  the  court  in 
Washington,  where  we  carried  with  us  a  long  and 
tedious  record  of  dull  facts,  a  few  flashes  from 
him  illumined  the  whole  case,  like  lightning  in  a 
black  landscape." 

To  this  estimate  should  be  added  the  influence 
of  his  known  character  and  the  force,  range,  and 
often  the  affectionate  pathos  of  his  speech.  And 


276      EBENEZER  ROCKWOOD   HOAR 

in  it  the  literary  quality,  sure  to  be  there,  was 
in  exactly  right  proportion  to  the  expression  of 
human  feeling,  —  adorned  it,  but  left  it  the 
leading  place.  The  Judge's  memory,  stored  with 
the  best  of  literature,  classic  and  sacred,  stood 
ever  behind  him,  furnishing  him  lustres  for  his 
public  speech.  It  is  said  that,  years  ago,  in  the 
palmy  days  of  the  old  Middlesex  Hotel  at  Concord, 
after  some  public  occasion,  a  frequenter  of  the  bar 
room  coming  in  was  much  amused  to  see  the  well- 
beloved  Samuel  Staples,  then  manager  of  the  hotel 
and  keeper  of  the  jail  close  by,  sitting  by  the 
window  and  reading  the  Bible.  "  Well !  that 's  new 
business  for  you,  ain't  it,  Sam?"  said  he.  "  I  was 
looking  to  see  if  I  could  find  some  of  those  splen 
did  quotations  the  Judge  is  always  bringing  in  in 
his  speeches,"  was  the  answer. 

Another  who  knew  him  well,  said  :  "He  could 
see  farther  into  a  case  in  five  minutes  than  any 
man  I  ever  knew." 

William  G.  Russell,  the  eminent  Boston  lawyer 
who  had  known  him  through  all  his  life,  said : 
"Though  he  was  well  read  in  the  law,  and  in 
the  best  that  has  been  written  of  old  or  modern 
times,  and  was  never  at  a  loss  for  an  authority  in 
point,  or  an  apt  illustration  from  history  or  ro 
mance,  or  from  proverb,  psalm  or  parable  from 
the  Book  of  books,  yet  for  his  law  and  his  con 
duct,  he  relied,  and  safely  relied,  chiefly  on  that 
strong,  native,  sound  common  sense  with  which 


PERSONAL  REMINISCENCES        277 

he  was  born  and  which  he  applied  to  cases,  to  men 
and  to  affairs  of  life.  He  had  more  than  New 
England  wit  and  wisdom.  He  had  the  stern,  un 
compromising  New  England  conscience." 

Mr.  Russell  held  the  Judge  to  be  a  notable  type, 
not  only  of  New  England's  wisdom,  but  of  its  wit. 
He  said:  "It  is  difficult  to  define  it,  but  there  is  a 
New  England  wit,  a  Yankee  wit,  if  it  please  you,  as 
different  in  its  type  from  English  or  Gallic  wit,  as 
is  the  flavor  or  aroma  of  our  Baldwin  apple  from 
that  of  the  southern  olive." 

Some  examples  from  his  childhood  up  have  been 
given,  but  others,  too  good  to  be  lost,  must  find 
place  here. 

Says  another  friend  :  "  I  know  none  of  the 
many  anecdotes  of  the  Judge's  ready  wit  that 
shows  better  than  the  following  how  instantly  and 
surely  it  worked.  The  morning  train  from  Con 
cord  was  sliding  into  the  Boston  station,  perhaps 
because  of  frost  on  the  rails  rather  faster  than 
usual,  and  we,  in  true  American  fashion,  were 
already  filling  the  aisle  of  the  car  and  pressing 
towards  the  door.  I  happened  to  be  just  in  front 
of  the  Judge,  who  was  talking  to  me,  and  had 
just  reached  the  door,  when  the  train  brought  up 
on  the  buffer  with  a  shock  that  threw  each  pas 
senger  against  the  one  in  front  of  him,  the  Judge 
against  me.  '  One  last  bumper  at  parting.  Good 
morning/  said  he,  as,  disengaging  himself  from 
me,  he  stepped  out  on  to  the  platform." 


278      EBENEZER  ROCKWOOD  HOAR 

A  niece  of  the  Judge  tells  that  one  winter  day, 
when  the  sleighing  was  fast  going,  he  drove  down 
with  her  to  Mr.  Emerson's  and  asked  to  speak  with 
him  at  the  door.  When  their  talk  was  ended  and 
the  Judge  was  going,  Mr.  Emerson  remarked  on 
the  gayly  painted  sleigh.  "As  you  said  in  your 
poem  '  Brahma/  "  remarked  the  Judge,  "  this  is 
a  case  where 

"  The  red  slayer  thinks  he  slays." 

At  a  bar  dinner  at  which  he  presided,  the  Judge 
called  attention  to  the  idle  ceremony  through 
which  the  people  of  Massachusetts  go  every  year, 
which  they  call  electing  a  governor,  "  who  how 
ever  has  no  real  power,  as  is  shown  by  the  lan 
guage  of  the  proclamation  announcing  his  elec 
tion,  which  runs  somewhat  as  follows  :  'And,  from 
the  return  of  votes,  it  appears  that  Oliver  Ames 
is  elected  Governor,  and  all  good  people  of  this 
Commonwealth  are  required  to  take  notice  thereof, 
and  govern  themselves  accordingly/  " 

At  Harvard's  two  hundred  and  fiftieth  anniver 
sary,  Mr.  James  C.  Carter  introduced  Judge  Hoar 
as  the  last  speaker  at  the  Law  School  dinner. 
When  the  applause  of  his  greeting  allowed  him, 
he  began  thus  :  — 

"I  expected,  Mr.  President,  that  you  were  call 
ing  on  me  as  a  reminiscence  —  a  capacity,  which, 
on  reflection,  after  all  that  I  have  heard  to-day,  I 
am  tolerably  well  qualified  to  fill.  I  feel  a  good 


PERSONAL  REMINISCENCES        279 

deal  like  the  old  friend  of  mine  who  went  to  a 
public  dinner  on  one  occasion  and  they  said  he 
was  a  most  remarkable  old  gentleman,  that  before 
dinner  he  remembered  General  Washington,  and 
that  after  dinner  he  remembered  Christopher 
Columbus." 

Cities  contended  for  the  honor  of  having  been 
Homer's  birthplace.  So  Boston,  New  York,  Con 
cord,  and  Windsor,  Vermont,  have  striven  concern 
ing  the  author  of  a  remarkable  and  multiple  joke, 
and  at  last  London  entered  the  lists.  In  May, 
1857,  Mr.  Evarts  wrote  to  his  cousin,  enclosing  two 
newspaper  clippings,  respectively  from  the  New 
York  "Evening  Post"  and  the  Boston  "Tran 
script,"  l  concerning  the  story  which  had  been 
ascribed  to  both  of  them  and  to  an  earlier  wit, 
as  follows :  — 

"  I  suppose  there  is  no  help  for  the  matter  be 
tween  us,  but  it  would  make  a  funny  jeu  $  esprit 
to  give  the  true  story  of  its  double  parentage  and 

»  From  the  New  York  Evening  Post :  " '  Render  unto  Caesar,'  etc. 
The  excellent  bon  mot,  which  the  Detroit  Advertiser,  in  a  para 
graph  quoted  yesterday,  attributes  to  Judge  Hoar  of  Massachu 
setts,  is  the  property  of  Mr.  William  Evarts  of  this  city,  a  cousin 
of  Judge  Hoar's.  In  a  toast  at  a  New  England  Society  dinner,  Mr. 
Evarts  described  the  three  stages  of  the  enterprising  Yankees,  as 
these:  *  First,  to  get  on;  second,  to  get  honor;  third,  to  get  honest.'" 

From  the  Boston  Evening  Transcript :  "  Lately,  at  a  dinner 
table  in  Massachusetts,  a  gentleman  remarked  that  X,  who  used 
to  be  given  to  sharp  practice,  was  getting  more  circumspect.  'Yes,' 
replied  Judge  Hoar,  'he  has  reached  the  superlative  of  life.  He 
began  by  seeking  to  get  on;  then  he  sought  to  get  honor;  and  now 
he  is  trying  to  get  honest.' " 


280      EBENEZER  ROCKWOOD  HOAR 

of  the  humility  with  which  I  asked,  and  the  gen 
erosity  with  which  you  granted,  the  entire  honor 
of  its  production  upon  its  first  public  presenta 
tion.  You  remember  the  occasion,  the  Linonian 
celebration  at  New  Haven  ;  I  have  no  recollection 
of  ever  having  used  it  since  in  public  or  private, 
and  it  is,  therefore,  a  mistake  to  refer  it  to  a 
New  England  dinner." 

Soon  after,  Mr.  Charles  Eliot  Norton  told  the 
joke  as  Judge  Hoar's  to  Mr.  Justice  Willes,  who 
was  visiting  this  country,  but  this  gentleman  in 
stantly  said  that  he  knew  it  to  have  originated 
with  Lord  Chelmsford,  and  scouted  all  other 
claims.  A  few  months  later,  however,  he  wrote  to 
Mr.  Norton  as  follows: — 

"I  am  bound  to  admit  that  the  'onner'  of  the 
excellent  bon  mot  of  Mr.  Hoar  does  not  belong  to 
old  England.  Lord  Chelmsford,  whilst  thoroughly 
appreciating  the  positive,  comparative  and  super 
lative  merit  of  the  witticism,  does  not  claim  its 
authorship." 

Still  later,  some  one  said  that  the  joke  was  old, 
having  been  made  some  years  before  by  an  Eng 
lish  lawyer  whom  he  named.  It  is  to  this  latter 
claim  that  Mr.  Evarts  refers  in  a  letter  to  the 
Judge,  in  May,  1873.  After  speaking  of  public 
matters,  he  says :  — 

"But  what  are  all  earthly  distinctions  when 
two  such  men  as  you  and  I,  having  joined  in  the 
labor  and  divided  the  honor  of  a  joke  of  national 


PERSONAL  REMINISCENCES        281 

reputation,  find  ourselves  exposed  as  robbers  of 
the  fame  of  a  dead  Englishman  ?  " 

Miss  Ellen  Emerson  probably  stated  the  real 
facts  as  follows :  "  Judge  Hoar  told  me  that  he 
and  Mr.  Evarts  were  talking  together  one  day 
about  a  lawyer,  bright,  but  of  doubtful  practices, 
who  had  lately  come  to  some  distinction.  Mr. 
Evarts  said,  '  Yet  he  seems  to  have  been  getting 
on  lately/  The  Judge  responded,  '  Yes,  more  than 
that,  he 's  been  getting  honor ' ;  and  Mr.  Evarts 
instantly  added,  '  And  perhaps  now  he  '11  begin  to 
get  honest/  " 

The  following  letter  is  characteristic  :  — 

MY  DEAR  RUSSELL,  —  I  have  your  note,  saying 
that  you  wish  to  present  the  judges  a  photograph 
of  me  for  their  apartments  in  the  new  court 
house,  and  inquiring  which  is  the  best  likeness. 
Sam  and  Sherman  think  my  best  picture  is  the 
one  which  hangs  in  the  Essex  law  library.  My  own 
opinion,  however,  is  that  a  better  picture  is  the 
one  that  was  taken  about  the  time  I  resigned 
from  the  Supreme  Court,  and  before  my  counte 
nance  had  become  characterized  by  the  melancholy 
which  has  settled  upon  it  in  contemplation  of  the 
fellows  who  succeeded  me  there. 

George  Herbert  well  said,  — 

Wit's  an  unruly  engine,  wildly  striking 
Sometimes  a  friend,  sometimes  the  engineer; 


282      EBENEZER  ROCKWOOD  HOAR 

and  it  was  so  with  Judge  Hoar's ;  it  recoiled  on 
him  often  and  gave  offence;  yet  there  was  no 
malice  in  it,  for  he,  not  being  thin-skinned,  usu 
ally  was  unaware  that  it  was  so.  When  the  papers 
had  published  many  criticisms  on  him  for  incon 
siderate  and  cutting  speech,  one  of  his  kin 
wrote :  — 

"  Rockwood  is  very  much  surprised  and  hurt  at 
all  this.  He  has  always  felt  himself  to  be,  in  the 
world,  a  most  affectionate  father  of  a  family.  He 
had  no  idea  that  he  had  created  such  a  feeling. 
And  yet  I  own  that  what  he  said  of  his  brother 
Frisbie  is  true  of  him,  —  'When  he  sees  a  fool, 
he  knows  him,  and  cannot  resist  the  pleasure  of 
telling  him  so/ ' 

The  Judge  once  spoke  of  sinners  as  "  that  large 
and  influential  class  in  the  community."  He  fre 
quently  happened  on  them  and  they  were  apt  to 
hear  his  views  intelligibly  expressed.  Ex-Gov 
ernor  Claflin,  after  the  Judge's  death,  said:  "I 
think  too  much  was  said  in  the  '  Tributes '  about 
the  offence  taken  by  senators  and  other  politi 
cians  who  came  in  contact  with  him.  It  was  not 
the  manners,  but  the  matters.  He  studied  the 
best  interests  of  the  country." 

But  concerning  the  occasional  woundings  on 
social  occasions,  Mrs.  Fields  said  truly:  "An  open 
ing  for  his  wit  he  could  not  bring  himself  to  let 
slip.  It  would  seem  to  him  a  crime.  'Opportunity 
is  fleeting ' ;  he  shot  his  shaft ;  the  dazzle  of  the 


PERSONAL  REMINISCENCES        283 

wit  would  hide  from  him  the  mortification  which 
the  other  party  tried  not  to  show." 

The  Judge  might  be  likened  to  "Isrel"  in 
Lowell's  poem,  "  The  Two  Gunners." 

"Don't  fire,"  sez  Joe,  "  it  ain't  no  use, 
Thet's  Deacon  Peleg's  tame  wiF -goose"; 
Sez  Isrel,  "I  don't  care  a  cent. 
I've  sighted  an'  I'll  let  her  went": 
Bang !  went  queen's-arm,  ole  gander  flopped 
His  wings  a  spell,  an'  quorked,  an'  dropped. 

The  sudden,  not  unkindly  laugh  that  came 
after  an  utterance  of  edged  wit  showed  that  he 
was  not  inhuman,  but,  being  differently  organized, 
did  not  appreciate  how  thinner-skinned  people 
might  suffer  and  resent. 

Judge  Chapman  testifies  to  a  marked  change  in 
the  matter  of  severe  retorts  in  court  after  the 
Judge  returned  from  Washington,  instancing  a 
case  where  he  forbore  utterly  to  pierce  his  oppo 
nent's  defenceless  side  after  great  provocation,  and 
quotes  Burns's  lines  :- 

What 's  done  we  partly  may  compute, 
But  know  not  what 's  resisted. 

On  one  occasion,  however,  he  had  the  fun  of 
availing  himself  effectively  in  court  of  his  primo 
geniture  at  the  expense  of  his  brother,  in  his  own 
city.  At  a  hearing  in  Worcester,  where  Senator 
Hoar  lived,  the  Judge  appeared  as  counsel  for  the 
Boston  and  Albany  Railroad,  and  the  Senator  for 
the  city.  The  appearance  of  the  two  distinguished 


284      EBENEZER  ROCKWOOD   HOAR 

brothers  on  opposite  sides  of  the  case  drew  out 
large  numbers  to  the  hearing.  During  the  hear 
ings,  Senator  Hoar  having  made  certain  state 
ments,  his  brother,  the  Judge,  in  beginning  his 
answer,  instead  of  using  the  usual  formula,  "My 
brother  says,"  started  in  with,  "As  my  little 
brother  has  said." 

Let  it  be  said,  in  passing,  that  the  relation  be 
tween  the  brothers  was  one  of  affection,  trust  and 
respect  throughout.  Senator  Hoar  spoke  of  the 
Judge  as  the  kindest  and  most  generous  of  brothers. 
Hon.  Joseph  H.  Walker  tells  of  journeying  in  the 
cars  with  the  Senator,  and,  on  reaching  Boston, 
finding  that  he  was  to  visit  his  brother,  he  asked 
permission  to  go  with  him  and  pay  his  respects. 
"The  meeting  of  these  venerable  men,"  he  says, 
"was  like  that  of  guileless  children,  and  my  love 
and  regard  for  both  of  them  was  intensified  by  the 
pleasure  of  the  occasion." 

Yet  this  was  but  the  manifestation  in  the  fam 
ily  of  the  really  affectionate  and  kind  impulses  that 
were  in  Judge  Hoar.  Although  he  had  a  face  that 
inspired  awe,  he  had  within  the  milk  of  human 
kindness.  Stern  as  he  looked,  eyes,  ears  and  hand 
were  open  to  an  unusual  degree  where  there  was 
need.  Help  was  quietly  and  wisely  given.  Many 
of  the  younger  generation  recall  his  visits  of 
tender  sympathy  when  death  had  entered  their 
doors,  —  especially  the  death  of  children  moved 
him ;  and  also  that  he  took  the  pains  to  come  with 


PERSONAL  REMINISCENCES        285 

a  friendly  God-speed  or  a  gift  on  notable  occasions 
of  their  lives, — journeys,  engagements,  weddings. 
He  treated  his  servants  with  consideration  and  re 
spect. 

On  the  morning  when  Mr.  R.  W.  Emerson's  house 
was  burned,  the  Judge  did  not  hear  of  it  until  he 
reached  the  railroad  station  on  his  way  to  Boston. 
He  immediately  went  to  the  insurance  office,  to 
learn  the  amount  of  the  policies ;  to  the  bank,  to 
know  the  state  of  his  friend's  account,  and  added 
a  generous  deposit  to  help  in  immediate  needs ; 
then  he  sought  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Emerson  at  the 
house  of  Judge  Keyes,  where  after  their  alarm, 
fatigue  and  exposure  they  were  being  cared  for, 
to  offer  his  sympathy  and  help.  Later,  he  went 
down  and  swept  the  barn-floor,  seeing  that  the 
furniture  was  to  be  stored  there.  Soon  after,  when 
the  Judge  was  made  by  Mr.  Emerson's  many  and 
generous  friends  their  ambassador  with  the  deli 
cate  mission  of  presenting  their  affectionate  trib 
ute  to  aid  in  rebuilding  his  house,  he  sought  his 
friend,  then  harbored  in  his  ancestral  home,  the 
Manse,  and  did  it  as  stated  in  his  own  words, 
quoted  from  his  letter  to  Dr.  Le  Baron  Russell :  — 

"I  told  Mr.  Emerson,  by  way  of  prelude,  that 
some  of  his  friends  had  made  him  treasurer  of  an 
association  who  wished  him  to  go  to  England  and 
examine  Warwick  Castle  and  other  noted  houses 
that  had  been  recently  injured  by  fire  in  order  to 
get  the  best  ideas  possible  for  restoration,  and 


286      EBENEZER  ROCKWOOD   HOAR 

then  apply  them  to  a  house  which  the  association 
was  formed  to  restore  in  this  neighborhood. 

"  When  he  understood  the  thing,  and  had  read 
your  letter,  he  seemed  very  deeply  moved.  He  said 
that  he  had  been  allowed,  so  far  in  life,  to  stand 
on  his  own  feet,  and  that  he  hardly  knew  what  to 
say.  ...  I  told  him  that  this  was  the  spontane 
ous  act  of  friends  who  wished  the  privilege  of  ex 
pressing  in  this  way  their  respect  and  affection, 
and  was  done  only  by  those  who  thought  it  a  privi 
lege  to  do  so.  ...  I  am  glad  that  Mr.  Emerson, 
who  is  feeble  and  ill,  can  learn  what  a  debt  of  ob 
ligation  his  friends  feel  to  him,  and  thank  you 
heartily  for  what  you  have  done  about  it." 

Seeing  how  strongly  his  friend's  scruples  were 
working  on  him,  the  Judge  determined  to  carry 
the  matter  through  and  said :  "  Well,  what  are  you 
going  to  do  about  it?  The  money  is  in  the  Con 
cord  Bank  to  your  credit."  Mr.  Emerson  took  the 
matter  under  consideration,  but  in  the  end  could 
only  surrender  to  his  friends,  who  claimed  that 
they  were  trying  to  pay  a  debt. 

He  asked  the  Judge  to  show  him  the  list  of  his 
benefactors.  When  it  came,  he  was  astonished. 
He  wrote  to  the  Judge :  — 

It  cannot  be  read  with  dry  eyes  or  pronounced 
with  articulate  voice.  Names  of  dear  and  noble 
friends  ;  names  also  of  high  respect  to  me,  but  on 
which  I  had  no  known  claims;  names  too  that 


PERSONAL  REMINISCENCES        287 

carried  me  back  many  years,  as  they  were  friends 
of  friends  of  mine  more  than  of  me,  and  thus  I 
seemed  to  be  drawing  on  the  virtues  of  the  de 
parted.  Indeed,  I  ought  to  be  in  high  health  to 
meet  such  a  call  on  heart  and  mind,  and  not  the 
thoughtless  invalid  I  happen  to  be  at  present.  So 
you  must  try  to  believe  that  I  am  not  insensible 
to  this  extraordinary  deed  of  you  and  the  other 
angels  on  behalf  of 

Yours  affectionately 

R.  W.  EMERSON. 

One  of  the  Judge's  classmates,  dying  in  1853,  left 
a  daughter.  She  said  that  every  Christmas  after 
her  father's  death  she  received  from  Judge  Hoar 
a  present  with  a  charming  note,  until  the  Judge 
himself  died,  but  she  never  saw  him  in  her  life. 

When,  in  1885,  at  the  Commencement  dinner, 
the  Judge  was  called  upon  to  speak  for  and  to  his 
class  on  the  fiftieth  anniversary  of  their  gradua 
tion,  he  spoke  with  affectionate  eloquence.  This 
passage  should  be  preserved  :- 

"  We  should  rather  like  to  hear  what  the  old 
lady  whom  to-day  we  have  come  back  to  look  up 
to,  and  to  admire,  thinks  of  us.  Her  smile  is  sweet 
as  she  sits  in  stately  beauty  and  lets  the  children 
talk.  Is  it  not  possible  for  eager  ears  to  catch  a 
few  words  from  her  lips?  I  think  I  hear  the  ma 
ternal  voice :  — 

" '  Well,  my  sons,  I  am  glad  to  see  you  once  more. 


288      EBENEZER  ROCKWOOD   HOAR 

How  the  years  roll  by,  to  be  sure !  Who  would 
think  it  was  fifty  years  since  I  put  you  down  from 
my  arms  and  set  you  on  your  own  feet.  The  time 
seems  short  to  me,  though  it  has  told  pretty  seri 
ously  upon  you.  As  I  look  you  over,  I  am  sorry  to 
see  how  little  of  what  civil  gentlemen  are  some 
times  pleased  to  call  my  "  immortal  beauty"  I  have 
been  able  to  transmit. 

"  'You  have  not  been  specially  eminent  as  a  class. 
If  any  of  you  have  rendered  conspicuous  public 
service  or  helped  to  make  the  world  better,  I  am 
glad  of  it ;  but  no  less  dear  to  me  are  those  of  you 
whose  lot  has  been  hardship,  disappointment  or 
poverty,  and  who  have  still  kept  themselves  to 
the  end  what  I  most  wish  my  sons  to  be,  worthy 
and  honorable  gentlemen. 

"'I  am  glad  to  remember  to-day  that,  as  a 
class,  you  have  come  to  see  me  when  you  could ; 
have  stood  by  me  and  helped  me  when  I  needed 
help ;  have  loved  one  another  and  have  loved  Har 
vard. 

"'And  now  you  see  that  I  have  all  these 
youngsters  to  attend  to,  and  it 's  about  your  bed 
time.  Good-night/ 

"Ah!  Alma  Mater  carissima,  may  the  bless 
ings  and  gratitude  of  the  class  be  with  you  to 
the  end  of  time!" 

Those  who  knew  him  can  recall  the  vibrating 
pathos  of  his  voice  on  occasions  like  this,  the 
pauses  for  safety  showing  his  tenderness  and  his 


PERSONAL  REMINISCENCES        289 

strength;  for  he  would  not  choke  or  break  down, 
though  .moved  to  the  core. 

A  year  or  two  later,  the  Judge  wrote  to  Pro 
fessor  James  B.  Thayer  of  Cambridge,  who  urged 
him  to  attend  the  Phi  Beta  Kappa  meeting  and 
speak:  — 

SHARON  SPRINGS,  N.  Y.,  June  17, 1887. 

Your  kind  and  persuasive  note  has  been  for 
warded  to  me  at  this  place. 

I  acknowledge  the  jurisdiction  of  the  <E>.  B.  K. 
to  be  co-extensive  with  space  and  time,  and  if  I 
were  to  take  the  wings  of  the  morning  and  dwell 
in  the  uttermost  parts  of  the  sea,  it  would  not 
surprise  me,  at  about  this  time  of  the  year,  to  find 
a  note  from  the  President  reminding  me  of  the 
annual  dinner.  The  motto  of  the  society  is,  as  it 
is  the  privilege  of  the  initiated  who  wear  its 
medal  to  remember,  " Sic  itur  ad  astra"  Having 
attained  the  grace  indicated  by  its  first  word  to 
some  extent,  I  am  sent  here  by  physicians  to  pre 
vent  if  possible  a  premature  and  too  speedy  ap 
plication  of  the  three  words  which  follow.  In  fact 
the  doctors  recommended  me  to  try  sulphur 
baths,  for  which  this  resort  is  famous  ;  but  I  have 
had  a  painful  suspicion,  remembering  my  connec 
tion  with  the  Andover  controversy  of  last  winter, 
that  there  may  be  a  covert  design  to  give  me  a 
slight  foretaste  of  immortality.  .  .  . 

As  to  helping  you  to  secure  the  attendance  at 


290      EBENEZER  ROCKWOOD   HOAR 

the  dinner  of  my  valued  friend,  Mr.  J.  M.  Forbes, 
I  have  been  some  weeks  away  from  Massachu 
setts  and  so  have  not  seen  him,  do  not  know  where 
he  is  or  what  he  is  about.  Indeed,  all  I  have 
heard  of  him  for  some  time  was  an  astonishing 
and  alarming  statement  concerning  him  which  I 
read  in  a  Boston  newspaper  yesterday.  That 
paper  informed  me  that  a  celebrated  ship-builder 
at  East  Boston  had  just  built  for  him  a  steam 
yacht,  and  added,  "its  dimensions  are  those  of  its 
owner."  Looking  farther  along  in  the  article  I 
found  those  dimensions  to  be  116  feet  in  length  — 
28  feet  beam  —  and  10  feet  in  depth.  Now  when 
Mr.  Forbes  was  a  Republican,  I  always  thought 
him  a  man  of  great  breadth  and  as  deep  as  most 
men,  but  I  never  supposed  him  capable  of  going 
to  such  extreme  lengths.  It  looks  to  me  like  a 
remarkable  Mugwump  development.  At  any  rate, 
if  the  newspaper  account  is  to  be  believed  (and 
what  can  you  believe  if  not  newspapers),  I  advise 
you  to  secure  his  attendance  at  the  3>.  B.  K. 
dinner,  at  all  hazards,  by  all  available  means,  and 
the  success  of  the  dinner  is  assured.  In  short,  I 
cannot  come,  but  you  have  my  best  wishes  for 
Mr.  Forbes. 

In  1890  his  son  Sherman  was  nominated  for 
Congress  on  the  Democratic  ticket,  and  was 
elected  a  few  weeks  before  the  Judge's  golden 
wedding.  In  a  basket  of  flowers,  affectionately 


PERSONAL  REMINISCENCES        291 

sent  by  Colonel  Henry  Lee  to  the  Judge  and  Mrs. 
Hoar  on  this  occasion,  lay  this  asp,  —  though, 
unlike  Cleopatra's,  no  venom  remained  from  its 
momentary  bite,  —  an  extract  from  a  campaign 
speech  which  the  Colonel  had  just  made  in  Sher 
man's  favor :  "  I  want  to  pay  a  passing  tribute 
to  his  [Sherman's]  father.  There  has  not  been  a 
more  patriotic,  public-spirited  citizen  or  a  better 
man  adorn  this  generation  than  Judge  Hoar. 
When,  at  about  the  present  age  of  his  son  Sher 
man,  he  broke  away  from  the  Whig  party,  then 
panoplied  in  wealth  and  respectability — he  broke 
away  from  them  because  of  their  sordid  pusilla 
nimity.  They  were  in  just  the  condition  that  the 
Republican  party,  I  believe,  is  in  now.  He  broke 
from  many  friends  in  order  to  satisfy  the  dictates 
of  his  conscience.  And  that  monitor  has  guided 
him  ever  since." 

The  Judge  took  very  hard  the  bad  example,  as 
he  held  it,  of  his  old  friends  Forbes  and  Lee  in 
the  Elaine  campaign,  who  had  done  noble  work 
with  him  for  the  country  in  the  war.  Lowell  also 
had  said,  "  I  am  proud  that  it  was  New  England 
that  defeated  the  New  England  candidate  "  ;  but 
the  Judge  seems  to  have  let  him  alone,  and  he 
went  to  Spain  as  minister  soon  after.  But  the 
Judge  had  come  to  feel  that  all  hope  for  the 
country  continued  to  lie  in  the  Republican  party, 
and  this  feeling  seemed  to  close  his  eyes  to  the 
corruption  that  gradually  creeps  into  a  party  long 


292      EBENEZER  ROCKWOOD   HOAR 

possessing  power  and  patronage.  This  extract 
from  a  letter  to  Mr.  Forbes  urging  him  to  come 
to  Naushon  and  recruit  his  strength,  shows  his 
feeling,  yet  good-naturedly,  knowing  Mr.  Forbes's 
virtue  and  strength. 

"  Don't  imagine  that  I  am  any  such  broken- 
down,  gloomy,  despairing  old  codger  as  that  one 
for  whom  you  tried  good  advice  and  a  change  of 
air  so  successfully.  On  the  contrary,  I  am  serene 
as  a  summer  morning,  cheerful  as  a  huntsman's 
chorus,  and  —  looking  back  upon  a  well-spent  life 
mainly  devoted  (aside  from  getting  a  living)  to 
the  support  of  the  Republican  party,  —  look  for 
ward  with  pious  trust  to  whatever  blessings  may 
yet  be  in  store. 

"  As  to  your  pretending  to  be  nearly  old  enough 
to  be  my  father,  unless  upon  the  maxim  of  the 
law  that  malitia  supplet  setatem,  and  that  the 
length  of  life  is  to  be  reckoned  by  its  amount  of 
pure  cussedness  —  it's  all  nonsense,  and  one  of 
those  delusions  which  attend  otherwise  excellent 
men  who  have  poor  health  and  vote  the  Demo 
cratic  ticket.  You  may  be  a  mere  trifle  my  elder, 
but  how  much  satisfaction  it  would  give  me  to 
know  that,  in  many  particulars,  you  were  as  wise 
—  for  example,  that  you  played  whist  as  regularly 
and  well  —  smoked  cigars  with  as  much  comfort, 
and  avoided  the  Democratic  party  with  the  stead 
iness  and  constancy  that  I  try  to  exhibit.  ...  I 
am  delighted  to  hear  that  you  have  the  new  lease 


PERSONAL  REMINISCENCES        293 

of  life  you  speak  of,  and  hope  you  will  go  back  to 
all  your  good  old  ways  and  stay  there  indefi 
nitely." 

Shortly  before  this,  the  Judge  had  written  to 
the  Senator,  stern  at  the  time  as  a  party  man, 
such  palliation  as  could  be  offered  for  his 
nephew's  apostasy,  as  he  deemed  it :  - 

"  Sherman  seems  to  be  in  for  it.  He  told  me 
that  he  would  not  be  a  candidate  against  Banks, 
nor  against  any  other  reputable  Republican.  But 
Fox  seems  to  be  thought  by  some  people  a  dis 
reputable  choice,  whose  success  is  to  be  assured,  if 
at  all,  by  money  and  corrupt  trading  with  the 
enemy. 

"  So  the  contest  in  the  5th  District  will  be  be 
tween  a  man  of  Republican  opinions  and  Demo 
cratic  methods  on  one  side,  and  one  of  Demo 
cratic  opinions  and  Republican  methods  on  the 
other." 

Mr.  Evarts  wrote  to  his  cousin  at  the  time  of 
the  Golden  Wedding  :  "  Your  good  state  of  Mas 
sachusetts  seems  to  have  been  well  swept,  but  ap 
parently  only  garnished  in  the  person  of  Mr. 
Sherman  Hoar.  The  result  of  the  election  places 
you  in  a  central  and  probably  solitary  relation  to 
lineal  representation  in  our  government.  You  are 
the  grandson,  and  the  son,  and  the  father,  of  a 
Congressman,  and  are  yourself  a  Congressman ; 
and,  as  Roger  Sherman  was  in  the  first  Congress, 
and  your  son  Sherman  (will  be)  in  the  next,  the 


294      EBENEZER  ROCKWOOD  HOAR 

whole  period  of  a  hundred  years  seems  to  have 
been  subtended  by  your  family ;  the  only  reason 
there  has  been  no  more  of  them  is  that  there 
have  been  no  more  generations  in  a  hundred 
years." 

The  Judge's  chronic  astonishment  at  Independ 
ents  —  who  had  received  inspiration  from  his 
conduct  at  a  similar  crisis  in  his  youth — finds 
expression  in  this  letter  to  Mr.  Forbes  who  had 
urged  him  to  come  to  the  Saturday  Club  and  bring 
Sherman,  then  in  Congress,  as  guest :  "  I  shall 
try  to  attend.  .  .  .  My  compunctions  about  exe 
cuting  your  commission  respecting  the  Hon.  Sher 
man  Hoar,  M.  C.  (whom  I  do  not  consider  a  reput 
able  person  to  be  seen  with  about  these  days),  will 
fortunately  cause  me  no  embarrassment ;  for,  as  I 
was  spelling  out  your  abominable  handwriting  at 
the  tea-table,  he  overheard  the  part  of  your  letter 
which  concerned  him,  and  said  it  was  out  of  the 
question,  as  he  had  a  previous  engagement  (and 
no  doubt  a  worse  one)  for  next  Saturday. 

"  It  is  more  and  more  an  astonishment  to  me 
how  anybody  that  was  the  friend  of  Whittier,  and 
knew  and  valued  Grant  and  Sherman  and  Sheri 
dan,  and  believes  in  honest  money  and  keeping 
the  public  faith,  can  encourage  young  men  to 
hitch  themselves  on  to  the  Democratic  party  !  As 
for  improving  it,  you  might  as  well  turn  in  a  few 
lambs  to  improve  a  pack  of  hungry  wolves.  Well, 
God  bless  you !  and  improve  your  sight,  for  you 


PERSONAL  REMINISCENCES        295 

are  one  of  the  very  few  cronies  I  have  left,  and 
'there  are  glimmerins  o'  sense  in  that  Dougal 
creature/  " 1 

The  tenderness  for  his  youngest  boy,  and  for 
the  friends  whom  he  could  not  but  trust  and 
honor,  always  shows  through  his  reproofs. 

Yet  it  is  remarkable  that  the  Judge  was  so 
kindly  tolerant  as  he  was,  considering  the  trying 
nature  of  the  infirmities  that  were  increasing  on 
him.  He  was  driven  to  Sharon  Springs  for  relief, 
such  as  it  was,  and  thence  wrote:  "Gout  is 
horrid  —  and  only  persons  of  angelic  disposition, 
like  me,  appear  to  advantage  under  it." 

Colonel  Henry  Lee  so  well  appreciated  and  un 
derstood  Judge  Hoar  that  his  words  may  be 
quoted  here. 

"  His  faith  in  his  town,  his  state,  his  church, 
his  college,  his  class,  his  political  party,  was  ab 
solute  ;  so  profound  were  his  convictions,  so 
strong  his  attachments,  that  he  seemed  to  mis 
trust  the  sanity  or  sincerity  of  those  who  ques 
tioned  their  superiority. 

"The  assumption  was  naturally  offensive  to 
those  of  other  nativities,  or  to  those  who  had 
conscientiously  arrived  at  other  conclusions  on 
matters  religious,  social,  or  political,  and  was 
taken  too  literally  by  those  who  were  devoid  of  a 
sense  of  humor,  or  not  well  acquainted  with  his 

1  Baillie  Nicol  Jarvie's  remark  about  the  Highland  turnkey  of 
Glasgow  jail,  in  3cott's  Rob  Roy. 


296      EBENEZER   ROCKWOOD  HOAR 

complexities.  For  while  it  was  difficult  to  trace 
the  boundary  line  between  his  settled  convictions 
and  his  cherished  illusions,  to  distinguish  between 
the  sallies  of  his  wit  and  the  utterances  of  his 
righteous  indignation,  those  who  had  known  him 
best  allowed  for  the  mixture. 

"  Writing  to  one  whose  political  debasement  he 
had  often  deplored,  he  says: '  I  never  expect  to  find 
anybody  in  this  world  who  is  always  right ;  (with 
the  possible  exception  of  one  whom  modesty  for 
bids  me  to  mention),  I  have  never  yet  found  one. 
And  as  I  grow  old,  I  am  more  and  more  disposed 
to  content  myself  with  the  admirable  qualities  of 
my  numerous  and  excellent  friends,  and  am  car 
ing  less  for  their  short-comings.' 

"This  was  his  creed ;  nobody  had  ever  been  so 
blessed  in  his  home,  his  friends,  his  surroundings; 
they  were  incomparable,  and  his  heart  beat  with 
gratitude  and  love." 

In  this  memoir  the  Judge  should  be  pictured,  as 
he  is  remembered  with  pleasure  and  with  pride, 
in  his  own  loved  town.  He  was  a  tall,  well-made 
man,  yet  a  little  heavy  in  gait  and  motion,  at  least 
in  the  latter  half  of  his  life.  A  columnar  erect- 
ness,  with  broad  front,  like  a  male  caryatid,  sym 
bolized  his  strong  uprightness.  This  likeness  was 
increased  by  the  fact  that,  though  sedentary,  he 
never  allowed  his  head  to  stoop.  It  was  placed, 
and  remained,  erect  upon  his  shoulders,  seldom 
turning.  He  was  more  likely  to  turn  entirely 


PERSONAL  REMINISCENCES        297 

towards  the  person  with  whom  he  spoke  and 
bring  his  searching  blue  eyes  upon  him.  His 
brows  were  level,  his  face  absolutely  under  com 
mand,  and  his  mouth  firm  shut.  Through  his 
gold-rimmed  spectacles  he  seemed  to  look  into  the 
person  before  him.  He  had  a  dignified  presence, 
which  could  be  formidable,  and  yet  surprise  by 
genial  and  affectionate  expression.  His  features 
were  good,  except  the  conformation  of  the  jaws 
which  injured  the  lower  part  of  the  face,  yet  this, 
except  the  upper  lip,  was  in  later  years  concealed 
by  an  unusually  becoming  beard. "  His  hair  was  a 
handsome  light  brown,  which  must  have  been 
yellow  in  early  youth.  AIL  together  he  was  a  fine- 
looking  man,  as  Custer's  portrait  and  French's 
bust  show,  and  resembled  singularly  Raphael's 
portrait  of  Pope  Julius  II. 

The  white  beard  and  silvery  hair,  abundant 
until  the  end,  gave  yet  more  dignity  to  his  later 
years. 

He  was  always  a  loyal  citizen  of  his  native 
town.  He  died,  and  his  life  was  spent,  within  a 
few  rods  of  the  house  where  he  was  born.  His 
father's  house,  his  own  house,  the  home  where 
his  wife  was  born  and  lived,  the  school  where  he 
fitted  for  college,  were  all  within  a  circle  of  less 
than  twenty-six  rods  radius.  Small  wonder  that 
his  local  attachment  was  strong.  In  those  early 
days,  when  Concord  life  was  mainly  within  its 
borders,  agricultural,  with  the  needful  local 


298      EBENEZER  ROCKWOOD   HOAR 

trades  and  some  small  factories,  the  heads  of  the 
learned  professions  made  a  potent  triumvirate. 
Minister,  squire,  and  doctor  stood  for  the  laws  of 
God,  of  man,  and  of  health.  They  were  drawn 
much  together,  and  their  fields  of  work  seemed 
to  overlap.  In  old  New  England  the  man  of  God 
had  highest  honor,  and  Judge  Hoar,  brought  up 
under  Dr.  Ripley's  pastorate,  always  regarded 
him  who  held  the  office  of  minister  of  the  First 
Church  in  Concord  entitled  to  high  respect,  even 
apart  from  his  personal  qualities.  To  Mr.  Frost, 
Mr.  Reynolds,  and  Mr.  Bulkeley  in  turn,  he  was 
an  attentive  listener,  a  strong  supporter,  and  a 
kind  friend.  With  Mr.  Reynolds  he  had  longest 
and  closest  relation. 

Old  Dr.  Kurd  no  doubt  ushered  Rockwood  Hoar 
into  the  world,  and  duly  administered  castor  oil, 
paregoric  and  squills  to  his  infant  ailments,  and, 
in  adolescence,  harried  acute  diseases  with  blue 
mass  and  tartar-emetic,  or  soothed  with  Dover's 
powder ;  but  from  the  time  Mr.  Hoar  was  mar 
ried,  the  young  Dr.  Bartlett  became  his  family 
physician.  He  was  a  comfort  and  strength  in 
ordinary  domestic  emergencies  or  the  days  of 
more  alarming  illness,  until  the  time  of  his  death 
thirty-seven  years  later. 

The  Judge,  Dr.  Bartlett  and  Rev.  Mr.  Rey 
nolds  were  warm  and  constant  friends.  For  many 
years,  on  pleasant  evenings,  if  the  Doctor  were 
at  leisure,  he  would  walk  or  hobble  up  the  Main 


PERSONAL  REMINISCENCES        299 

Street  to  drop  in  for  a  chat  with  the  Judge  and 
his  wife,  and  then  go  on  to  Mr.  Reynolds's.  This 
was  especially  true  during  the  Civil  War,  with  its 
anxious  interest  for  all.  In  his  memoir,  Mr.  Rey 
nolds  has  told  how  the  Doctor  never  failed,  on 
the  last  evening  of  the  year,  to  have  paid  every 
cent  of  debt  from  such  collections  of  old  and  new 
debts  as  he  had  been  able  to  make,  and  thus 
knew  exactly  how  he  stood  in  the  world.  His  son 
tells  me  that  Judge  Hoar,  knowing  this,  never 
forgot  to  pay  his  bill  that  evening,  when  in  town, 
coming  in  person  to  the  Doctor's  office.  On  the 
last  day  of  the  year,  at  the  age  of  eighty-one,  the 
good  Doctor,  broken  and  feeble,  after  visiting 
very  sick  patients,  got  out  of  his  chaise  for  the  last 
time,  went  into  his  little  office  and  settled  his  ac 
counts  with  the  world  painfully,  then  went  into 
his  house  and  lay  down  on  his  bed,  to  die  five 
days  later.  His  sons,  scattered  at  their  business  in 
various  cities,  came  home,  and  in  the  evening 
after  the  funeral  were  invited  by  the  Judge  to 
come  to  his  house,  where  he  expressed  to  them 
his  love  and  honor  for  their  father,  and  his  grati 
tude  for  his  long  and  faithful  service  to  him  and 
his. 

In  the  small  and  still  mainly  homogeneous  Con 
cord  before  the  Civil  War,  what  might  well  be 
called  the  old  Town-Family  yet  flourished,  in  spite 
of  some  political  and  religious  differences  and 
neighborhood  bickerings.  New  blood,  native  and 


300      EBENEZER   ROCKWOOD   HOAR 

from  over  sea,  was  beginning  to  quicken  and  en 
large  it,  but  happily  the  standards,  set  high  by 
Bulkeley  and  Willard,  were  there,  and  Samuel 
Hoar  and  Rockwood  his  son  after  him  upheld 
them  before  the  people. 

Among  the  elevating  institutions  of  the  village 
was  the  Lyceum,  founded  in  1829.  Its  serious 
character,  and  the  remarkable  men  of  its  epoch 
who  spoke  there,  were  described  by  the  Judge 
when  he  presided  at  its  fiftieth  anniversary;  also 
that  Rockwood  Hoar,  aged  twelve,  was  the  fifty- 
seventh  and  last  of  the  original  signers  of  its  con 
stitution.  When  in  town,  he  was  a  regular  attend 
ant.  From  his  speech  introducing  the  orator  of 
the  occasion,  comes  this  characteristic  fragment 
of  his  eloquence  :  — 

"I  had  nothing  special  to  say  to  you  —  but 
there  is  a  great  deal  that  comes  into  my  thoughts, 
as  I  look  back  over  these  fifty  years.  The  air  is 
full  of  ghosts,  and  the  heart  of  memories,  many 
of  them  very  tender  and  pathetic." 

;  When  young  Middle  Street  rudely  brushed  the 
old  academy  from  its  path  in  1850,  Judge  Hoar 
built  a  small  school-house,  comfortable  for  its 
day,  to  meet  the  constant  demand  for  a  private 
school  of  better  standards  than  the  public  schools 
of  that  day.  At  present  it  humbly  serves  the 
cause  of  letters,  but  thirty  paces  from  its  original 
site  on  the  Sudbury  Road,  a  handmaid  to  the  Li 
brary.  The  little  schools  of  Miss  Helen  Maynard 


PERSONAL  REMINISCENCES        301 

(afterwards  Mrs.  Joseph  Keyes),  Rev.  James 
Thurston,  and  finally  the  very  successful  and  at 
tractive  school  of  Mr.  Sanborn,  found  their  home 
there,  and  the  Judge's  four  elder  children  and 
eight  of  his  kin  were  among  the  scholars. 

Of  the  little  Town  Library,  established  by  the 
fathers  of  the  town  for  the  preservation  of  the 
Book  of  Martyrs  and  other  edifying  works,  Judge 
Hoar  was  one  of  the  guardians  for  twenty-one 
years,  and  chairman  for  the  ten  years  preceding 
its  transfer  to  the  new  building  given  by  Mr. 
Munroe.  When  the  new  Library  was  incorporated, 
he  was  on  the  board  of  trustees,  and  the  follow 
ing  year  presented  his  report  to  the  town,  as 
president  of  that  body,  which  office  he  held  for 
the  rest  of  his  life. 

In  the  earlier  days  of  his  practice  he  served 
for  several  years  on  the  school  committee,  of 
which  he  was  for  a  time  chairman.  He  was,  how 
ever,  too  busy  a  man  and  too  much  away  from 
Concord  during  most  of  his  life  to  serve  the  town 
in  any  of  the  regular  offices,  but  on  great  occa 
sions  she  always  looked  to  him  as  her  most  able 
and  efficient  son. 

But  of  the  Church  of  the  fathers  he  was  the 
chief  pillar,  and  his  wisdom  helped  to  guide  the 
councils  of,  and  his  liberality  to  support  the  wor 
ship  maintained  by  the  First  Parish  of  Concord. 
That  worship  had  passed  from  tempered  Calvin 
ism,  slowly  and  almost  imperceptibly  modified 


302      EBENEZER  ROCKWOOD   HOAR 

by  Arian  and  Arminian  influences,  to  Channing 
Unitarianism,  soon  to  undergo  further  evolution. 
Conservative  by  temperament,  he  naturally  ac 
cepted  the  forms  of  worship  that  he  found.  Be 
lief  in  the  one  God,  faith  in  a  future  life,  homage 
to  the  beautiful  life  and  teachings  of  Jesus,  jus 
tice,  mercy  and  love  to  his  fellow  men,  —  these 
were  in  his  religion.  We  do  not  know  how  far  his 
critical  mind  allowed  him  to  go  on  minor  points 
of  belief.  These  were  enough,  and  were  active 
forces  in  his  life. 

His  niece,  who  in  her  school  days  lived  much  in 
the  family,  speaks  of  "  the  power  in  Uncle  Rock- 
wood  of  a  strong  inherited  religious  faith,  for, 
though  he  made  that  faith  his  own,  it  was  his 
fathers'  God,  interpreted  by  him,  that  he  wor 
shipped,  and  the  faith  soothed  his  irritable  nerves 
and  gave  him  in  disappointment  and  sorrow  a 
dignified  quiet.  He  said  to  his  sister,  'Do  you 
remember  in  father's  prayer,  "Let  nothing  tem 
poral  greatly  move  us  "  ?  I  am  trying  to  keep  it 
in  mind/  Those  prayers,  I  know,  gave  a  quiet 
feeling  of  personal  responsibility  for  wrong  which 
certainly  Uncle  Rockwood  felt.  Judge  Lowell 
says,  in  his  account  of  Uncle  Frisbie  (the  Senator): 
'The  Puritan  felt  himself  personally  responsible 
for  everything  done  on  the  earth.  If  there  was  a 
wrong,  he  was  called  to  right  it,  without  fear  of 
meddling.' "  This  was  surely  true  of  the  Judge ;  he 
was  by  nature  a  justice  of  the  peace,  and  of  pro- 


PERSONAL  REMINISCENCES        303 

priety,  in  the  village  and  wherever  he  happened 
to  be.  Amusing  instances  might  be  given,  but  his 
presence  was  such  that  he  was  pretty  sure  to  pre 
vail.  The  knife  of  his  surgery  was  often  sarcasm, 
but  the  humor  might  assuage  the  cut.  It  was  well 
said  of  him  that  "  There  were  few  cases  of  mis 
fortune  or  wrong-doing  that  Judge  Hoar  felt 
were  outside  his  province,  that  he  could  not  do 
something  to  help  by  his  advice,  his  work,  or  his 
purse,  which  always  held  out  marvellously  in 
giving  substantial  aid  when  his  friends  and 
neighbors  were  in  need."  He  helped  young  people 
to  start  in  life  or  get  an  education,  and  poor  men 
to  buy  small  farms,  and  like  kindnesses,  but  with 
all  secrecy.  His  sister  Elizabeth  said :  "  Rockwood 
scatters  with  both  hands  and  never  looks  behind." 

One  of  his  kindred  said  :  "  Few  people  carry  an 
enlightened  conscience  into  receiving  their  divi 
dends.  When  wages  were  reduced  and  the  same 
large  dividends  given  to  the  stockholders  in  the 
Waltham  Watch  Company,  and  he  heard  how  the 
hard  times  bore  on  some  of  the  workmen,  he  re 
turned  the  cheque  for  his  dividend  with  the 
request  that  it  be  given  to  some  of  the  suffering 
employees." 

Faith  and  works  were  there,  daily  proofs  of  a 
living  religion,  and  observances  were  punctually 
regarded.  It  has  been  said  that  the  Judge  was  a 
pillar  of  the  Unitarian  Church  in  Concord,  but  so 
he  was  in  the  Unitarian  Association.  After  his 


304      EBENEZER   ROCKWOOD   HOAR 

death,  Rev.  Edward  Everett  Hale  wrote :  "  He  was 
president  of  the  Conference  when  I  was  chair 
man  of  the  Council  first,  so  that  again  and  again 
I  ran  into  his  office  on  one  or  another  matter,  al 
ways  to  find  him  sympathetic,  and,  of  course,  wise. 
But  sympathy  is  worth  so  much  more  than  wisdom. 
He  was,  as  you  know,  vitally  and  eternally  in 
terested  in  our  affair."  Of  his  letters  he  says: 
"  Not  one  but  is  encouraging  and  helpful  —  men 
are  so  different  in  such  things ! " 

When  the  Judge  put  the  robes  of  office  —  so  to 
speak  —  on  to  his  mind,  he  felt  the  duty  of  fair 
ness,  but  in  the  dressing-gown  he  allowed  it  the 
luxury  of  prejudiced  wit.  He  knew  that  the  doc 
trines  emphasized  in  the  church  across  the  Mill 
brook  had  been  held  by  the  Puritans,  and  that 
the  worshippers  were  alike  Congregationalists, 
and  so  was  mildly  tolerant  of  the  "  Orthodox  " 
society.  When  the  countrymen  of  Saint  Patrick 
came  in,  it  was  but  proper  that  they  should  bring 
their  ancient  worship  with  them  —  moreover, 
they  were  socially  apart.  But  the  spread  of  Epis 
copacy  among  New  England  towns  was  a  sore 
trial  to  him,  and  he  inclined  to  treat  it  as  an  un 
warrantable  intrusion.  His  classmate,  Mr.  Charles 
Henry  Parker,  says  that  Judge  Hoar  remarked  to 
him,  that  he,  for  one,  was  not  content  to  go 
through  this  world  as  a  "  miserable  sinner."  His 
attitude  was  rather  the  stronger  one  of  the 
Norseman  to  his  Gods,  not  willing  to  be 


PERSONAL  REMINISCENCES        305 

But  their  thrall  and  their  bondsman 
Who  wert  born  for  their  very  friend. 

Rev.  Prescott  Evarts  says  that  when  he  came 
to  Cambridge  as  a  freshman,  his  kinsman,  the 
Judge,  kindly  urged  him  to  spend  his  Sundays  in 
his  family.  Young  Evarts  answered  that  he  al 
ways  liked  to  attend  his  own  church  on  Sundays, 
and,  as  there  was  then  no  Episcopal  church  in 
Concord,  he  would  come  occasionally,  but  not  reg 
ularly.  The  Judge  overcame  his  dislike  of  the 
English  Church  so  far  as  to  bid  his  young  cousin 
come,  nevertheless,  and  he  should  have  the  use  of 
his  horse  to  drive  to  Saint  Ann's  church  at  South 
Lincoln  —  "  Sat-an's,"  as  young  Sam  irreverently 
called  it.  When,  later,  an  Episcopalian  society 
was  formed  in  Concord  and  proposed  to  build  the 
present  church,  the  Judge  used  to  tell  of  his  re 
monstrance  to  Bishop  Brooks :  "  Bishop,  how  is 
it  that,  in  your  liturgy,  you  every  Sunday  pray 
that  we  be  delivered  from  all  heresy  and  schism, 
and  yet  are  proceeding  thus  to  break  in  upon  our 
good  record  in  Concord,  where  there  has  been  no 
schism  in  the  Church  for  two  hundred  and  fifty 
years?" 

But  he  held  the  good  Bishop  in  high  esteem. 
In  a  letter  to  Senator  Hoar,  the  Judge  sent  this 
message  to  his  niece  :  "  Tell  Mary  to  beware  of 
Episcopal  wiles.  They  are  a  dreadfully  conceited 
set  already,  and,  if  they  should  capture  her,  I 
fear  their  arrogance  would  know  no  bounds.  .  .  . 


306      EBENEZER  ROCKWOOD  HOAR 

It  is  such  a  pity  that  Phillips  Brooks  was  taken 
away  before  he  had  half  converted  them  to  the 
Christian  religion." 

Yet  the  Judge  would  quote  with  high  approval 
from  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer.  On  the  Nine 
teenth  of  April,  1875,  a  member  of  the  Decora 
tion  Committee  was  looking  up  mottoes  to  adorn 
the  festal  tents,  especially  those  in  which  the  word 
"  Concord  "  was  found.  He  told  the  Judge  that  he 
had  found  one  in  "Paradise  Lost,"  which  would  be 
more  acceptable  in  Lexington  than  here, — to  wit: 

Oh  shame  to  men!  devil  with  devil  damned 
Firm  concord  hold. 

"Away  with  Milton!"  said  he.  "Hear  the 
Prayer  Book :  '  0  God,  who  art  the  author  of  peace 
and  lover  of  Concord.'  " 

In  a  letter  written  from  Sharon  Springs  to 
Mrs.  Hoar,  in  the  summer  of  1890,  her  husband 
thus  accounts  for  his  Sunday  : — 

"As  to  religious  privileges ;  I  have  had,  1st,  a 
fish-ball  at  breakfast ;  2d,  '  The  Christian  Regis 
ter  ' ;  3d,  taking  up  a  collection  ;  4th,  an  Episco 
pal  sermon  by  way  of  dilution  of  the  last-named 
means  of  grace.  .  .  . 

"I  hope  Carrie  will  forward  the  'Christian 
Register '  again  this  week  in  season  for  Sunday, 
for  which  it  is  my  chief  dependence." 

It  was  an  era  in  New  England  when  the  air  was 
full  of  reforms,  in  religion,  in  politics,  in  social 


PERSONAL  REMINISCENCES        307 

and  domestic  life,  in  diet  and  personal  habits,  and 
the  roads  were  thronged  by  their  eager  apostles. 
Judge  Hoar,  though  open  to  great  and  commanding 
reforms,  had  a  great  respect  for  law  and  order, 
tested  new  notions  by  strong  common  sense,  and 
his  native  love  for  old  usage  made  him  throw 
the  burden  of  proof  upon  the  newcomer.  He  kept 
a  simple  but  generous  table,  befitting  his  station, 
retaining  but  adding  to  the  old  New  England 
dishes.  Grahamites  never  made  a  vegetarian  of 
him,  nor  did  extreme  Abolitionists  induce  him  to 
exclude  rice,  sugar,  coffee  and  spice,  as  slave-labor 
products,  nor  temperance  lecturers  persuade  him 
to  confound  temperance  with  abstinence.  He 
"came  eating  and  drinking,"  but  was  neither 
"glutton  nor  wine-bibber."  At  a  feast  he  liked 
good  wine,  and  set  it  before  his  guests.  His  friend 
Sidney  Bartlett,  the  eminent  lawyer,  had  sent 
Judge  Hoar  a  basket  of  champagne,  Veuve  Cliquot. 
In  his  acknowledgment  he  said  :  — 

We  are  not  to  be  hood-winked  by  talk  about 
"widows."  "  I  spy  a  pig  peard  under  the  muffler." 
of  this  widow  Cliquot.  To  visit  a  widow  may  be 
a  Christian  duty,  but  I  know  of  no  obligation  to 
allow  a  widow  to  visit  you.  To  be  sure,  you  sent 
them  with  their  mouths  all  tied  up,  and  while 
that  lasts  no  harm  may  be  done  ;  but  I  belong  to 
the  party  of  freedom  and  progress,  —  shall  "  re 
member  them  in  bonds  "  ;  —  and,  the  first  one  I  set 


308      EBENEZER  ROCKWOOD  HOAR 

eyes  on,  shall  undo  all  that,  to  begin  with.  You 
knew  I  should,  and  for  what  follows  you  ought  to 
be  held  responsible.  But  I  leave  you  to  your  own 
reflections.  .  .  . 

Soberly  yours, 

E.  R.  HOAR. 

In  spite  of  careful  living,  the  Judge  had  an  un 
happy  constitutional  tendency  to  eczema  and  the 
digestive  disturbances  that  commonly  accompany 
this.  His  sedentary  habit,  life  indoors,  often  in 
the  bad  air  of  court-rooms,  and  the  overwork 
which  his  responsibilities  demanded,  made  him 
often  a  sufferer.  His  solace  was  smoking,  which 
he  probably  overdid.  Ordinary  medical  treatment 
did  little  for  him,  but  he  put  great  faith  in  the 
inward  and  outward  drenchings  of  Hopkinton, 
Sharon  and  Saratoga  Springs,  and  was,  at  any 
rate,  helped  by  the  rest,  change  and  amusement. 
Mr.  William  Sullivan  relates  that  Judge  Hoar  told 
him  that,  when  he  entered  one  of  those  hydro 
pathic  establishments,  the  first  thing  that  struck 
his  eye  was  a  printed  rule  of  the  house  forbidding 
"  inmates "  to  smoke.  He  hunted  up  the  pro 
prietor  and  told  him  that,  while  he  agreed  to  live 
there  for  some  time,  he  wanted  it  understood  that 
he  was  not  an  "inmate."  "All  right,"  said  the 
unwary  proprietor.  Afterwards,  when  they  tried 
to  stop  the  Judge's  smoking,  he  referred  them  to 
his  explicit  agreement  with  the  proprietor. 


PERSONAL  REMINISCENCES        309 

"Woman's  Rights"  was  among  the  new  re 
forms  agitated  on  the  lecture  platforms  and  in 
the  papers,  not  always  in  an  attractive  way,  and 
quasi  male  attire  of  brown,  figured  gingham  worn 
on  Concord  streets  did  not  help  matters.  The 
Judge's  conservative  mind  with  regard  to  suffrage, 
he  thus  expressed  in  a  letter  to  his  brother  :  - 

"  I  expect  much  pleasure  in  reading  your  '  Cen 
tury  '  articles,  as  you  are  interesting  even  when 
on  the  wrong  side.  I  do  not  propose  to  aid  in 
abolishing  women." 

When  Concord  was  invaded  by  alleged  mani 
festations  of  spirits  through  hitherto  sober  tables, 

"spirits,"  as  Thoreau  said,  "which  no  respect 
able  junk  bottle  would  consent  to  hold  for  an  in 
stant,"-  -the  apostles  of  the  new  "rat  and  mouse 
revelation,"  as  Emerson  called  it,  were  Mr.  X, 
a  pocketbook-maker  of  no  other  distinction,  his 
virtuous  but  tartly  prosaic  sister,  an  anaemic  dress 
maker  and  a  rude  Irish  servant-girl  who  turned 
her  table-moving  to  account  in  "spring  clean 
ing."  A  lady,  greatly  interested  in  the  question  of 
future  life,  suggested  to  Judge  Hoar,  that  after 
all  there  might  be  something  in  these  manifes 
tations.  He  remarked  :  "  But  you  will  admit, 
madam,  that  this  treasure  —  if  it  be  such  —  is 
vouchsafed  to  us  in  earthen  vessels."  Some  one 
retorted  smartly  on  the  Judge  by  saying  that  he 
"  had  to  reserve  all  his  credulity  for  the  Christian 
miracles." 


310      EBENEZER  ROCKWOOD   HOAR 

On  one  other  occasion  the  Judge  was  walking 
by  the  local  grocery,  and  on  the  sidewalk  an  over- 
conscientious  dog  was  sitting,  who  had  been  left 
in  charge  of  a  wagon  while  its  owner  did  his 
errand  within.  For  some  reason  the  dog  took 
offence  and  sprang  at  the  Judge,  tearing  his  trou 
sers  and  biting  him  in  the  leg.  He  shook  him  off 
and  walked  on,  but  as  his  indignation  grew  strong 
he  marched  back  to  the  store  and  confronted 
the  owner  coming  out,  to  whom  he  showed  his 
wounds  and  his  feelings  in  a  sharp  protest.  The 
owner  looked  him  over  slowly  and  seriously  and 
then  said,  with  deliberation  and  the  air  of  one 
who  was  making  full  reparation,  "  The  dog  was 
to  blame." 

The  Judge  liked  dogs,  and  preserved  the 
fashion,  found  in  old  books,  of  addressing  an  un 
known  dog  by  the  generic  name  "  Bose." 

In  the  town  meeting  Judge  Hoar's  good  sense, 
knowledge  of  law  and  usage,  respect  for  the  in 
stitution  and  for  his  townsfolk,  and  determination 
that  Concord  should  act  worthy  of  her  name  and 
fame,  were  of  inestimable  value.  What  was  said 
of  his  grandfather  Roger  Sherman's  wisdom 
might  almost  have  been  said  of  him  in  Concord  : 
"  His  influence  was  such  that  no  measure  or  part 
of  a  measure  which  he  advocated  ever  failed  to 
pass."  The  discussion  was  not  long  after  the 
Judge  had  spoken.  A  meeting  where  he  was  mod 
erator  would  be  creditable  to  the  town.  To  one 


PERSONAL  REMINISCENCES        311 

who  persistently  repeated  a  motion,  which  the 
Judge  uniformly  ruled  out  of  order,  and  who 
finally  said,  "  When  will  this  motion  be  in  order  ?  " 
he  replied,  with  grave  urbanity,  "  After  the  meet 
ing  adjourns." 

In  the  Social  Circle,  a  neighborhood  club  meet 
ing  at  the  houses  of  members,  the  Judge  took 
much  pleasure  at  ease  among  friends  and  neigh 
bors,  and  his  wit  burnished  while  his  wisdom 
strengthened  that  society.  Mr.  Emerson,  soon 
after  he  became  a  member,  had  written  to  a  Bos 
ton  friend :  "  Much  the  best  society  I  have  ever 
known  is  a  club  in  Concord  called  the  Social 
Circle,  consisting  always  of  twenty-five  of  our 
citizens,  doctor,  lawyer,  farmer,  trader,  miller, 
mechanic,  etc.,  solidest  of  men  who  yield  the  sol- 
idest  of  gossip.  ...  I  do  not  like  to  be  absent 
from  home  on  Tuesday  evenings  in  winter." 

When,  in  1882,  on  the  evening  of  the  vernal 
equinox,  the  Social  Circle  met  at  the  house  of 
Mr.  Reuben  Rice  to  celebrate  its  hundredth  birth 
day,  and,  strangely  enough,  all  the  members  were 
present,  —  the  only  time  in  the  memory  of  the 
oldest  member, — Judge  Hoar  presided.  It  is  need 
less  to  say  that  he  did  so  with  dignity,  wit,  and 
tact.  That  occasion  was  further  notable  because, 
by  the  vote  of  the  Club,  the  president  was  able 
that  night  to  "welcome  the  wives  and  daughters 
to  whose  household  cares  and  labors  the  Social 
Circle  has  been  so  often  and  so  much  indebted." 


312      EBENEZER   ROCKWOOD   HOAR 

He  ended  his  introductory  speech  thus  pleasantly : 
"With  cordial  good  wishes  to  each  other,  and 
tender  and  respectful  memory  of  our  honored 
predecessors,  at  this  dividing  point  in  two  cen 
turies,  we  meet  'to  report  progress  and  to  ask 
leave  to  sit  again."3 

The  Library  had  the  benefit  of  his  wisdom  and 
active  interest  up  to  the  last  year  of  his  life. 

When  the  endeavor  was  made  to  found  an  An 
tiquarian  Society,  in  order  to  secure  the  valuable 
collection  made  by  the  late  Cummings  Davis,  in 
crease  it,  and  preserve  perishable  objects  and 
passing  memories  of  earlier  times,  Judge  Hoar 
was  one  of  the  five  original  life-members,  whose 
subscriptions  made  the  organization  of  the  so 
ciety  possible. 

He  built  houses  on  the  field  northwest  of  the 
Fitchburg  station ;  and  as  these  afforded  homes 
for  the  newly  arrived  Scandinavian  settlers,  gave 
the  pleasant  name  of  Elsinore  to  the  street,  which 
the  town  adopted. 

He  saw  in  the  later  years  of  his  life  with  a 
natural  homesick  regret  the  inevitable  change 
which  converted  the  Concord  of  his  youth,  the 
village  of  plain  living  and  high  thinking,  into  a 
suburban  town  of  twice  the  size,  and  of  mixed 
nationalities  and  diverse  social  standards.  At  the 
celebration  of  Concord's  two  hundred  and  fiftieth 
birthday,  on  a  September  day  of  wonderful  beauty 
in  1885,  this  feeling  came  to  the  surface  a  little 


PERSONAL  REMINISCENCES        313 

in  his  expressed  doubts  whether  the  town  were 
helped  by  importing  a  state  prison  at  its  western 
part  and  a  school  of  philosophy  at  its  eastern. 
But  it  must  be  remembered  that  then  he  was  de 
pressed  by  feebleness  and  actual  suffering.  He 
was  courteous  and  neighborly  to  the  newcomers 
when  he  met  them,  and  saw  the  excellent  service 
rendered  by  many  of  them  to  their  adopted  home. 

During  the  Butler  campaign  a  Mr.  Shortle  made 
a  speech  which  aroused  Colonel  Henry  Lee  to  make 
this  answer  :  "  At  the  Republican  conference,  Mr. 
Shortle  of  Provincetown  said  that  *  no  man  who 
could  only  be  approached  by  those  within  certain 
walks  of  life,  who  represented  not  the  Republican 
party,  but  only  a  peculiar  shade  of  blood,  a  few 
families  on  Beacon  Street,  would  get  his  vote/ 

"As  to  Beacon  Street,  living  there  is  a  pre 
sumption  of  wealth,  nothing  more.  Whatever 
the  merits  or  demerits  of  the  dwellers  in  Beacon 
Street,  who  are  only  distinguished  by  that  success 
in  money-getting  which  Mr.  Shortle  and  the  ma 
jority  of  men  strive  for,  Judge  Hoar  will  be 
amused  to  learn  that  he  is  their  representative.  I 
have  known  him  for  forty-two  years,  and  I  have 
often  qualified  my  praise  of  him  by  charging  him 
with  an  undue  severity  on  city  men  and  city 
ways,  an  almost  aggressive  simplicity  and  disre 
gard  of  the  little  graces. 

"If  one  wants  to  see  Puritan  principles  carried 
into  practice,  let  him  visit  Concord  and  witness 


314      EBENEZER  ROCKWOOD   HOAR 

the  noble  frugality  and  quiet  dignity  of  that  small 
circle  of  highly  endowed  and  highly  educated  men 
and  women  to  which  Judge  Hoar  belongs,  and 
which  is  characterized  by  those  virtues  easy  to 
admire,  hard  to  practise,  even  by  Mr.  Shortle." 

There  was  one  institution  which  for  thirty-seven 
years  was  a  chief  refreshment  to  the  Judge  from 
hard  work  in  the  profession,  and  a  solace  in  days 
darkened  by  political  danger  or  civil  war.  More 
than  that,  it  was  a  focus  of  good  sense,  wisdom, 
and  high  patriotism  whence  sprung  many  meas 
ures  important  to  the  country.  This  was  the  Sat 
urday  Club.  The  original  company  of  four  or  five 
came  together  naturally  and  each  suggested  a 
friend  or  two ;  sympathy  rather  than  eminence 
was  the  bond.  Before  1857,  the  Club  had  no  offi 
cers,  and  no  formal  elections  for  several  years. 
These  early  members  were  Lowell,  Longfellow, 
Holmes,  Agassiz,  Richard  H.  Dana,  Jr.,  Motley, 
Professor  Peirce  the  mathematician,  Dwight  the 
musical  critic,  and  Whipple  the  literary  critic, 
President  Felton  of  Harvard,  Samuel  G.  Ward,  a 
banker  and  man  of  culture,  Horatio  Woodman,  a 
trust  lawyer  with  literary  aspirations,  but  conven 
iently  conversant  with  the  contents  of  Parker's 
larder,  and,  from  Concord,  Judge  Hoar  and  Mr. 
Emerson.  The  next  two  decades  brought  in  Haw 
thorne,  Prescott  the  historian,  Whittier,  Tom  Ap- 
pleton  the  wit,  Charles  Eliot  Norton,  John  M. 
Forbes,  Dr.  Howe  the  philanthropist,  Charles  Sum- 


PERSONAL  REMINISCENCES        315 

ner,  Governor  Andrew,  Martin  Brimmer,  Eliot 
Cabot,  Fields  the  publisher,  Hunt  and  Rowse  the 
artists,  Charles  Francis  Adams,  Sr.,  Francis  Park- 
man,  Dr.  Gray  the  botanist,  President  Eliot,  Presi 
dent  Rogers  of  the  Institute  of  Technology,  Judge 
Horace  Gray,  Howells,  Godkin,  Senator  Hoar,  and 
others. 

It  was  a  brilliant  company  that  the  last  Satur 
day  afternoons  of  the  month  brought  together  at 
"  Parker's  "  in  the  front  room  on  the  second  floor, 
-scholars,  statesmen,  men  of  law  and  science, 
poets,  naturalists,  doctors,  college  presidents  and 
professors,  artists  and  men  of  affairs. 

Sometimes  military  music  echoed  down  from 
Beacon  Hill,  and  the  company  left  the  table  to 
see  a  Massachusetts  regiment  march  under  the 
windows  bound  for  the  seat  of  war.  It  was  a  sort 
of  town-and-country  club,  the  most  refreshing  to 
the  members  from  each.  Judge  Hoar  always  shone 
there  by  his  wisdom  and  especially  his  wit.  It  was 
his  delight  to  enter  the  lists  in  conversation,  es 
pecially  with  Lowell  and  Holmes  —  and  with  these 
champions  he  easily  held  his  own.  In  Lowell's 
poem  on  Agassiz  after  the  death  of  that  great  and 
genial  man,  he  devotes  some  stanzas  to  the  Club  and 
pictures  it  with  Agassiz  presiding,  and,  describ 
ing  Emerson,  he  uses  this  happy  Yankee  simile:  - 

Listening  with  eyes  averse  I  see  him  sit 
Pricked  with  the  cider  of  the  Judge's  wit 
(Ripe-hearted  homebrew,  fresh  and  fresh  again). 


316      EBENEZER   ROCKWOOD   HOAR 

Those  dinners  were  so  pleasant  that  the  Club,  as 
sembling  perhaps  at  half-past  two,  often  sat  more 
than  four  hours  at  table,  and  there  was  then  no 
late  train  to  Concord.  The  Judge  solved  the  diffi 
culty  pleasantly  by  having  his  man,  or,  quite  often, 
his  son,  bring  his  carryall  and  big  black  horse 
down  to  Waltham,  to  which  a  later  train  ran.  Thus 
the  three  townsmen,  so  different,  yet  so  interest 
ing  one  to  another,  had  a  pleasant  drive  on  the 
cool  country  road,  moon-lit  or  star-lit,  after  the 
hours  at  the  gay  banquet  in  Parker's  hot  room. 
But  for  this  Hawthorne  and  the  Judge  would  never 
have  met,  unless  they  sat  together  at  Club,  and 
there  Hawthorne  was  merely  a  handsome  picture 
with  living  eyes.  Emerson  too,  though  his  chance 
for  acquaintance  was  better,  probably  met  his  re 
cluse  neighbor  hardly  half  a  dozen  times  in  Con 
cord  after  the  formation  of  the  Club.  Hawthorne's 
shyness  and  failing  health  made  his  attendance 
far  from  regular.  Once  Dr.  Holmes,  meeting  him 
soon  after  he  was  elected,  said  he  hoped  he  would 
join.  Hawthorne  protested  that  he  was  unfitted 
by  nature,  being  neither  a  good  eater  nor  talker. 
"But  you  can  listen"  said  the  doctor,  naively, 
for  he  delighted  in  that  prospect ;  "  I  hope  you 
will  come ! " 

Judge  Hoar's  brother  Edward,  after  several 
years'  life  in  California  in  her  early  days  as  a 
state,  had  returned  home,  and  not  long  after  had 
gone  abroad  with  his  sister  Elizabeth  and  their 


PERSONAL  REMINISCENCES        317 

friend  and  neighbor,  Miss  Elizabeth  Prichard.  He 
married  this  lady  in  Florence,  and,  on  their  re 
turn,  he  bought  a  farm  in  Lincoln  near  Deacon 
Farrar's  and  worked  hard  there,  until  our  harsh 
climate  began  to  pinch  and  stiffen  him  with  rheu 
matism.  He  then  went  with  his  wife  and  daugh 
ter  to  Sicily  and  delighted  in  their  pleasant  acres 
near  Palermo  until  they  found  the  climatic  perfec 
tion  outweighed  by  the  imminence  of  assassina 
tion.  So  they  returned  and  shared  with  Miss  Eliz 
abeth  their  father's  house,  where  they  were  born. 
Mr.  Hoar  was  only  well  enough  to  carry  on  the 
small  place,  but  he  loved  to  be  in  the  woods  and 
on  the  river,  especially  with  his  friend,  Henry 
Thoreau.  His  knowledge  of  flowers  and  birds,  his 
adventures  of  travel  and  California  life,  his  know 
ledge  of  books  and  his  refined  nature,  kindly  though 
sensitive  and  shy,  made  him  a  charming  companion 
to  the  few  who  had  the  privilege  of  knowing  him. 
It  was  a  great  pleasure  to  his  brother  Rockwood 
to  drop  in  and  spend  an  hour.  One  day,  at  the  Sat 
urday  Club,  Dr.  Holmes  was  maintaining  that  all 
people  that  were  worth  anything  came  to  the  sur 
face,  and  were  known  as  such.  Judge  Hoar  said, 
"  I  don't  agree  with  you.  I  've  a  dear  brother  at 
home,  who  is  worth  a  dozen  of  me,  whom  nobody 
knows  —  and,  if  it  were  polite,  I  might  add,  so 
have  you."  He  was  speaking  of  Mr.  John  Holmes, 
the  Doctor's  younger  brother,  always  a  bachelor 
and  living  quietly  with  his  aged  mother  in  the  old 


318      EBENEZER  ROCKWOOD   HOAR 

house  on  Cambridge  Common  as  long  as  mother 
and  house  remained.  He  was  a  gentle,  shy  man 
with  several  physical  disabilities,  yet  with  an  af 
fectionate  nature,  a  modesty,  a  sweetness,  and  a 
quaint  humor  that  made  him  more  beloved  by 
the  few  who  knew  him  than  his  brilliant  brother. 
John  Holmes  seems  to  have  been  much  like  Charles 
Lamb,  except  for  the  main  failing  of  the  latter. 
John  and  Oliver  Wendell  were  good  examples  of 
humor  and  of  wit  respectively.  Strangely  enough, 
when  John  was  praised,  the  Doctor  always  looked 
a  little  puzzled,  as  if  he  didn't  quite  recognize  the 
man  his  friends  described.  They  took  great  de 
light  in  him.  John  Holmes,  Lowell,  the  Judge, 
and  Charles  W.  Storey  were  great  cronies  all  their 
lives  long.  Whether  or  no  Judge  Hoar  often  in 
dulged  in  writing  verse,  he  certainly  wrote  a 
charming  one  in  his  later  years  to  his  friend. 

JUDGE  HOAR'S  POEM  TO  JOHN  HOLMES 

There  came  a  man,  sent  from  God,  whose  name  was  John. 

4th  Gospel,  i,  6. 
There  is  but  one  John. 

JAMES  RUSSELL  LOWELL. 

And  surely  I  think  we  know  him, 

And  could  guess  from  whom  he  came, 
For  he  bears  his  credentials  with  him  — 

Not  in  earthquake,  wind  and  flame, 
But  the  still  small  voice  which  ever 

Befits  the  message  divine. 
The  servant,  who  stands  and  waits 

By  the  swiftly  hurrying  line 


PERSONAL  REMINISCENCES        319 

Of  the  winged  host,  serves  as  well 

As  speeding  Angel  or  Man, 
And  the  quiet  may  bring  a  message 

Which  the  noisy  never  can! 
He  was  sent  to  Us!  to  the  life-time 

Of  each  he  has  added  cheer, 
And  has  helped  us  join  in  saying, 

"Methinks  it  is  good  to  be  here!" 
So  modest  and  shy  and  patient, 

So  willing  and  wise  and  true,  - 
We  are  glad  that,  when  God  sent  him, 

He  was  willing  to  send  us  too. 
Now  whenever  you  take  the  journey 

That  leads  through  the  shadows  dim, 
Please  say  to  the  One  who  sent  you  here 

That  we're  much  obliged  to  him. 

Lowell  could  not  come  to  the  Judge's  golden 
wedding,  being  himself  far  from  well,  but  sent  his 
greeting :  — 

"  No  need  to  say  how  glad  I  should  be  were  it 
permitted  to  be  with  you  to-day.  But  after  draw 
ing  for  seventy  years  on  what  seemed  an  unlim 
ited  income  of  life,  I  find  myself  put  under  guar 
dianship  and  on  an  allowance,  to  make  the  two 
sides  of  which  meet  demands  a  watchful  frugality. 
You,  if  ever  any,  may  look  back  on  a  life  full  of 
honor  because  it  has  been  full  of  indomitable  pub 
lic  spirit  and  of  public  and  private  service.  .  .  . 

"  It  is  fifty-two  years  since  I  first  knew  you  in 
Concord  and  saw  the  foundation  laid  of  the  home 
whose  continued  felicity  is  commemorated  to-mor 
row. 


320      EBENEZER  ROCKWOOD   HOAR 

"The  Musketaquid  has  of  ten  made  a  silent  but 
not  ineffective  third  in  our  talks  at  the  foot  of 
your  garden.  Whenever  it  has  been  my  good  for 
tune  to  see  it,  it  has  reflected  serene  and  happy 
skies.  I  cannot  think  of  you  without  thinking  of 
it  also,  and  heartily  praying  that  the  current  of 
your  life  may  flow  on  to  the  end  under  heavens 
as  prosperous  as  those  that  gladden  my  memory." 

Soon  after,  at  the  Saturday  Club  dinner,  No 
vember  29,  1890,  Dr.  Holmes  as  usual  sat  at  the 
head  of  the  table  ;  Judge  Hoar  at  the  opposite  end. 
As  the  company  broke  up,  the  Judge  came  down 
to  speak  with  the  Doctor,  who  called  him  to  ac 
count  for  not  having  properly  acknowledged  a  glass 
of  champagne  that  he  had  sent  down  to  him. 

The  Judge  maintained  that  he  had  duly  gone 
through  all  the  forms,  and  Dr.  Holmes  was  obliged 
to  admit  failing  sight.  He  then  spoke  pleasantly 
to  the  Judge  about  the  golden  wedding  which  he 
had  just  celebrated,  and  seemed  much  moved  as 
he  said,  "  I  had  hoped  that  that  pleasure  was  to 
come  to  me  —  to  live  with  my  wife  until  then — 
that  sets  the  seal  " ;  and  his  voice  trembled.  The 
Judge  said  that  he  considered  it  his  best  achieve 
ment,  to  have  secured  Mrs.  Hoar  and  to  have  kept 
her  for  that  length  of  time. 

Changing  the  scene  rapidly  backward  in  time, 
and  with  it  the  tone,  this  anecdote  of  friendship 
and  of  wit  should  be  preserved.  When  the  silver 
wedding  of  the  Judge  and  Mrs.  Hoar  was  ap- 


PERSONAL  REMINISCENCES        321 

preaching,  his  friend  Mr.  Emerson  sent  a  silver 
cup  as  a  gift.  The  Judge  was  much  pleased,  but 
said  it  must  have  a  motto  inscribed  ;  he  meditated, 
and  after  a  time  produced  this  :  - 

Poetse  est  poculum  prsebere  ;  cujusvis  haurire,  - 
which  he  thus  rendered  into  the  vernacular,  "  It 
is  the  part  of  the  Poet  to  give  the  cup ;  any  fool 
can  drink  from  it."  Mr.  Emerson  was  honored - 
and  amused. 

With  all  the  Judge's  external  steadiness  and  his 
moral  courage,  he  seems  to  have  had  a  dread  of 
physical  pain  and  surgery.  Judge  William  L.  Put 
nam,  of  Portland,  writing  to  Senator  Hoar  in  1892, 
said :  - 

"  I  have  an  extremely  interesting  photograph 
of  your  brother.  It  illustrates  that  there  is  in 
the  character  of  every  man  of  worth  a  deep  un 
dercurrent,  which  sometimes  comes  to  the  surface 
only  rarely.  He  called  on  me  one  day,  telling  me 
he  was  on  the  way  to  the  hospital  for  an  opera 
tion,  which,  he  said,  would  be  slight.  Nevertheless 
he  seemed  to  be  in  a  peculiarly  emotional  condi 
tion.  He  remained  a  long  time  talking  with  me. 
As  he  was  leaving,  he  said  he  wished  to  pass  me 
his  photograph,  for  which  I  thanked  him  very 
heartily.  After  he  had  gone,  I  examined  it  and 
found  it  an  extremely  characteristic  and  truthful 
likeness.  In  the  lower  left-hand  corner  I  dis 
covered,  in  a  trembling  hand,  'P.  P.  C.'  I  have 
always  preserved  it  with  great  care." 


322      EBENEZER  ROCKWOOD   HOAR 

Monitions  that  his  time  on  earth  was  drawing 
to  a  close  were  on  him.  Yet  the  operation  at  the 
hospital  afforded  him  great  temporary  relief,  im 
proved  his  health,  and  largely  restored  for  a  time 
such  activity  as  might  have  been  expected  at  his  age. 

There  was  much  correspondence  between  the 
Judge  and  his  loyal  friend,  Mr.  Forbes,  in  their 
days  of  advancing  infirmities.  Mr.  Forbes,  with 
his  mighty  main-spring,  believed  in  activity  to 
the  last,  and  also  had  reliance  on  Sir  Henry 
Thompson's  good  sense  as  to  diet  and  regime.  In 
reply  to  a  letter  on  this  subject  the  Judge  wrote : 

Pain  and  decrepitude  are  repulsive,  but  there  is 
nothing  for  us  to  grieve  at  in  knowing  that  "our 
little  life  is  rounded  with  a  sleep."  I  take  the  de 
privation  of  activity  very  easily,  but  I  dare  say 
you,  who  have  done  so  much,  find  it  hard  to  be 
lieve  that  the  time  for  taking  in  sail  is  close  at 
hand.  It  is  a  good  thing  to  see  the  lights  in  the 
harbor. 

Affectionately. 

And  again :  — 

CONCORD,  May  10, 1892. 

MY  DEAR  MR.  FORBES,  —  I  was  much  interested 
in  the  plan  for  keeping  old  fellows  alive,  by  keep 
ing  them  at  work,  which  you  were  so  kind  as  to 
send  me.  But  the  old  codger  I  have  to  tote  about 
is  so  infernally  lazy,  that  I  have  often  thought  the 


PERSONAL  REMINISCENCES        323 

best  thing  for  me  to  do  would  be  to  discharge 
him  from  my  service  entirely. 

Still,  though  I  have  a  great  contempt  for  him, 
he  has  been  with  me  so  long  and  knows  my  ways 
so  well,  that  when  with  difficulty  I  have  got  him 
up  and  dressed  every  morning,  I  conclude  that  I 
will  let  him  loaf  round  one  day  more,  and  have 
his  smoke  and  read  the  papers  ;  though  I  know  he 
is  not  worth  his  keep,  and  is  a  great  deal  more 
bother  than  use  to  me  or  anybody.  The  plan  you 
suggest  has  its  merits,  no  doubt,  and  I  believe  has 
been  tried  on  cab-horses  with  varying  success. 
But  on  the  other  hand,  taking  it  easy  may  suit 
some  cases  as  well  as  the  whip-and-spur  treat 
ment,  though  I  always  felt  my  conscience  relieved 
by  applying  the  latter.  Blessed  is  he  who  has 
done  his  day's  work  well,  and  can  enjoy  the  even 
ing  shade  and  coolness  without  scheming  or  worry. 

Faithfully  yours, 

E.  R.  HOAR. 

Not  being  able  to  persuade  the  Judge  to  come 
down  to  the  autumnal  hunt  upon  his  island, 
Naushon,  Mr.  Forbes  sent  his  friend  a  haunch  of 
venison.  It  was  thus  acknowledged  :  — 

To  HON.  J.  M.  FORBES 

Dweller  in  the  forest  and  the  wilderness ! 
Eking  out  your  scanty  subsistence  by  hunting  and 
fishing !  No  doubt  at  this  moment  exulting  in 


324      EBENEZER  ROCKWOOD   HOAR 

the  thought  of  that  stag,  and  saying  to  all 
comers,  "  Veni  !  (or,  if  not  Veni  himself,  at  least 
Veni's  son)  Vidi !  Vici  I "  What  splendid  bounty 
you  show  in  forwarding  such  a  share  of  the  fruits 
of  the  chase  to  the  humble  dwellers  in  Concord, 
unused  to  such  luxuries.  But  are  you  sure  that 
your  own  stock  of  provisions  will  last  through  the 
winter  ?  How  can  I  sit  down  before  that  haunch, 
when  roasted,  if  I  think  that  the  munificent  giver 
may  himself  be  at  the  brink  of  starvation  before 
Spring?  Be  sure,  if  any  such  catastrophe  should 
be  impending,  to  let  me  know  it  seasonably.  I 
might  spare  a  few  turnips  and  potatoes  to  help 
you  through.  Meantime,  I  rest  your  anxious  but 
obliged  friend, 

E.  R.  HOAR. 

Again,  in  the  last  year  of  the  Judge's  life,  when 
his  infirmities  were  troublesome,  Mr.  Forbes  sent 
him  another  haunch.  He  said  in  his  letter  of  thanks, 
"Perhaps  you  are  to  such  an  extent  a  disciple  of 
our  old  Concord  philosopher,  ...  A.  Bronson  Al- 
cott,  as  to  think  that  some  of  the  qualities  of  an 
animal  are  imparted  to  him  who  feeds  upon  its 
flesh  ;  and  so,  noticing  how  poor  and  halting  was 
my  present  supply  of  legs,  have  intended,  if  pos 
sible,  to  contribute  to  their  improvement.  'Oh! 
had  I  the  wings  of  a  dove  ! '  said  the  Psalmist ;  and 
how  blessed  it  would  be  if  my  cry,  'Oh  !  had  I  the 
legs  of  a  deer  ! '  could  be  in  any  degree  realized." 


PERSONAL  REMINISCENCES        325 

His  courage,  wit,  and  affection  shine  out  so 
bright  in  these  later  letters  that  it  is  better  to 
read  his  words  than  words  about  him.  He  wrote 
to  Mr.  Emerson's  daughter,  Mrs.  William  H.  Forbes 
of  Milton,  answering  her  invitation  to  be  present 
at  some  private  theatricals  given  in  honor  of  the 
sixtieth  anniversary  of  the  wedding  of  Mr.  and 
Mrs.  Forbes  by  their  children  and  young  kindred. 
The  play  was  a  dramatization  of  Scott's  "  Legend 
of  Montrose." 

CONCORD,  January  25,  1894. 

MY  DEAR  EDITH,  —  Don't  I  wish  I  could  !  It  is 
very  good  of  you  to  think  of  me  but  I  doubt 
whether  you  know  how  old  and  feeble  I  am. 

My  social  relations  are  limited  to  going  to  meet 
ing,  attending  the  Saturday  Club  (for  a  couple  of 
hours,  and  at  a  tavern)  and  the  Social  Circle  in 
Concord,  close  within  reach  of  home.  Otherwise 
I  am  "  closed  for  repairs  "  —  which  I  fear  are  not 
likely  to  be  made. 

This  is,  I  know,  a  doleful  Jeremiad  to  send  in 
return  for  your  bright  and  cheerful  note  of  invi 
tation,  which  cheered  me  to  receive,  and  cheers 
me  again  every  time  I  look  at  or  think  of  it. 

My  spirits  are  pretty  uniformly  good.  You  may 
have  seen  in  old  museum  collections  fragments 
of  old  rubbish  preserved  in  spirits.  Well,  I  guess 
that  fits  my  case  pretty  closely.  I  have  not  lost 
my  taste  for  good  society,  though  I  left  off  visit- 


326      EBENEZER  ROCKWOOD   HOAR 

ing  my  sister  (in  Cambridge)  two  years  ago,  and 
see  that  delightful  Milton  is  also  a  sealed  book. 
"  The  spirit  is  willing,  but  the  flesh  is  weak." 

So  with  the  assurance  of  my  highest  honor 
and  warm  personal  regard  for  that  eminent  por 
tion  of  Christendom  which  we  called  Forbesdom, 
and  the  deepest  regret  that  I  cannot  see  "  Vich 
Ian  Vohr  with  his  tail  on,"  1 

I  am,  my  dear, 

Affectionately  yours, 

E.  R.  HOAR. 

One  solace  that  remained  to  the  Judge  as  long 
as  he  could  come  downstairs  must  on  no  account 
be  forgotten.  He  delighted  in  whist  —  the  whist 
of  old  times.  It  must  be  played  with  all  due 
respect ;  it  was  serious  business,  and  when,  in  his 
own  or  a  neighbor's  house,  a  partie  carree  had 
been  formed,  idle  callers  seemed  an  impertinence. 
Every  evening  in  the  week,  if  the  Judge  were  at 
home,  the  game  was  played.  It  was  a  sore  cross  to 
him  if  debates  at  Parish  meeting,  or  the  lecture 
at  Lyceum  took  too  much  time,  and  ten  o'clock 
came  all  too  soon  on  the  interesting  game.  At  dif 
ferent  times  the  sets  varied,  but  the  principal  play 
ers  were  Mr.  Rice,  Mr.  Fay  Barrett,  Rev.  Mr.  Rey 
nolds,  Mr.  Edward  Hoar,  Mr.  Wheildon,  Mr.  Alfred 

1  The  expression  used  in  Waverley  by  Fergus  Mclvor's  hench 
man,  to  signify  the  Chief  at  the  head  of  his  clan.  The  Forbes 
family  came  from  Strathdon  on  the  edge  of  the  eastern  Highlands 
of  Aberdeenshire. 


PERSONAL  REMINISCENCES        327 

Munroe,  and  Mr.  Quincy  Browne.  One  of  the  Prich- 
ardesses,  as  the  Judge  called  his  neighbors,  the 
Misses  Prichard,  to  whom  he  was  as  a  brother,  might 
be  called  into  the  smoky  and  exacting  atmosphere 
over  the  tables,  or  the  press-gang  be  sent  out  to 
seize  and  drag  in  some  neighbor  of  the  younger 
generation  to  fill  a  vacant  place,  and,  when  there, 
he  had  to  mind  his  p's  and  also  his  g's.  From 
these  games  came  much  refreshment  to  the  Judge's 
weary  mind  and  body. 

But  age  and  infirmity  by  no  means  made  Judge 
Hoar  indifferent  to  town  affairs.  In  the  summer 
of  1894  it  was  proposed  by  the  ruling  magistrates 
that  the  State  Highway  Commission  assume  the 
care  of  the  Main  Street  in  Concord  on  the  ground 
of  "public  necessity  and  convenience."  If  the 
Judge's  feeble  feet  were  not  stirred  to  attend  the 
meeting,  his  wrath  was.  He  sent  to  a  young  fel 
low  townsman  a  written  opinion  to  quote  there, 
and  it  had  its  effect: — 

Public  necessity  and  convenience  require !  Is 
the  condition  of  the  people  of  Concord  so  necessi 
tous  (even  according  to  the  private  meditations  of 
the  Selectmen)  that  we  cannot  afford  to  keep  our 
chief  thoroughfare  in  good  working  order  !  Con 
venience  ?  Is  there  a  better  or  handsomer  street 
than  our  Main  Street  easily  to  be  found  in  the 
Commonwealth ;  or  any  probability  that  it  would 
be  more  convenient  to  anybody  by  giving  it  away 


328      EBENEZER  EOCKWOOD   HOAR 

from  the  care  of  those  that  love  it  and  take  pride 
in  it  to  the  control  of  a  board,  however  competent 
and  respectable,  who  have  no  special  interest  in  it  ? 
/  think  not. 

Very  truly  yours, 

E.  R.  HOAR. 

Less  than  a  year  before  his  death,  on  Concord's 
sacred  day,  that  year  christened  "  Patriots'  Day," 
Judge  Hoar's  pride  and  patriotism  flashed  out 
from  among  the  whitening  ashes  of  his  life.  He 
told  in  detail  how  through  a  long  life  he  had 
shared  in  all  Concord's  public  celebrations  of  the 
anniversary.  Then,  after  speaking  of  the  many 
days  that  Americans  might  fitly  call  Patriots'  Day, 
he  said :  - 

"But  this  day,  the  Nineteenth  of  April,  1775, 
has  a  relation  to  Massachusetts  more  intimate  and 
sacred  than  any  other  day  can  have  ;  a  day  on 
whose  anniversary  it  has  been  well  to  provide  by 
law  that  her  children  should  keep  holiday  —  our 
Mother's  birthday ;  for  on  this  day,  one  hundred 
and  nineteen  years  ago,  the  Commonwealth  of 
Massachusetts  was  born." 

And  in  this  his  last  address  to  the  people  of  Con 
cord  he  said  that  the  time  had  come  "  to  end  for 
ever  all  local  bickerings  and  jealousies  about  the 
share  that  one  or  another  town  or  village  or  ham 
let  had  in  the  events  which  have  given  to  that 
day  its  imperishable  glory." 


PERSONAL  REMINISCENCES        329 

His  peroration  should  be  recorded.  "Washing 
ton  left  no  posterity,  but  every  true  American 
calls  him  father.  And  so  I  would  urge  that  on  this 
memorable  day  concerned  with  memories  and 
events  which  should  be  dear  to  us  all,  every  citi 
zen  of  the  Commonwealth  who  prefers  honor  and 
public  service  to  selfishness  and  ease,  who  loves 
liberty  and  will  resist  tyranny  without  counting 
the  personal  cost,  wherever  he  was  born  and  of 
whatever  lineage  after  the  flesh, — that  every  true 
son  of  Massachusetts  should  have  a  right  to  call 
himself,  and  is,  a  son  of  the  American  Revolu 
tion/' 

He  wrote,  from  time  to  time,  letters  to  old 
friends  or  classmates  recalling  pleasant  memories, 
but  they  were  really  saying  good-by.  To  one  he 
wrote  :— 

"  Thinking  of  you  reminds  me  of  what  a  pecul 
iar  and  curious  relation  is  that  of  classmates.  We 
came  together  in  our  early  youth,  more  than  sixty 
years  ago,  from  various  places  and  surroundings ; 
filled  ourselves  up  with  what  modicum  of  sense 
and  learning  each  might  get  hold  of,  and  then 
put  to  sea  on  our  respective  voyages,  seeing  little 
of  each  other — nothing  more  than  an  occasional 
hail  or  signal,  or  a  short  touching  at  some  port  on 
the  way — and  at  last,  one  by  one,  anchored  at 
our  destined  harbor,  there  to  take  account  of  our 
voyage,  and  settle  with  the  OWNER.  But  we  of 
1835  have  always  felt  we  were  a  part  of  the  same 


330      EBENEZER  ROCKWOOD   HOAR 

fleet  and  were  always  ready  to  '  stand  by  and  lend 
a  hand/ 

"Now  I  am  a  pretty  feeble  old  codger,  and 
bringing  a  battered  old  craft  to  the  end  of  its 
voyage.  But  I  love  to  think  of  the  successful  lives 
of  my  classmates — by  which  I  don't  mean  mak 
ing  a  noise  in  the  world,  much  less  getting  into 
possession  of  lots  of  money.  .  .  . 

"  To  have  been  a  gentleman  and  a  scholar,  a 
man  of  refined  tastes  and  absolute  uprightness, 
whose  influence  and  character  have  been  a  power 
for  what  is  best  both  in  public  and  private  affairs 
—  that,  to  my  thinking,  is  a  successful  life  to  look 
back  upon  after  eighty  years ;  and,  as  Dr.  Palfrey 
put  it  in  his  Bacclaureate  sermon,  '  that  is  to  be 
a  worthy  son  of  Harvard  College/" 

To  another,  the  Hon.  Charles  W.  Palf  ray  of  Sa 
lem,  he  wrote  but  four  weeks  before  his  death 
thus  pleasantly :  — 

CONCORD,  Jan.  1,  1895. 

DEAR  CHARLIE, — It  looks  as  though  I  should 
never  be  out  of  my  house  again,  hardly,  according 
to  the  doctor's  ideas,  out  of  my  bed-room,  and  per 
haps  not  many  days  out  of  my  grave. 

My  little  stock  of  cigars,  like  the  faithless 
wretches  they  are,  seeing  this  cheerful  prospect, 
retired  in  good  order,  and  pretended  they  never 
had  anything  to  do  with  it. 

But  I  think  they  had  better  go  to  you,  and  trust 


PERSONAL  REMINISCENCES        331 

to  your  kindness  to  give  them  their  deserts.  The 
box  inside,  containing  30-odd,  are  supposed  to  be 
very  decent,  but  use  your  own  judgment  about  all 
of  them.  Because  I  am  going  to  kick  the  bucket 
is  no  reason  that  you  should  kick  the  box. 

I  had  hoped  to  see  the  fellows  at  one  more  Com 
mencement,  to  wit,  our  sixtieth,  sed  Diis  aliter 
visum. 

Faithfully  yours,  old  fellow,  as  to  the  goal  in 
foot-ball,  and  over, 

E.  R.  HOAR. 

Now,  in  the  words  attributed  to  Orpheus,  "that 
white  flower  which  marks  extreme  old  age  "  had 
crowned  our  first  citizen,  but,  though  his  body 
was  growing  useless,  his  mind  burned  clear,  and 
his  spirit  was  unsubdued. 

He  had  borne  a  great  grief,  —  Mrs.  Hoar  had 
gone  before  him.  Now  he  lay  down  on  his  bed, 
brave,  but  a  little  impatient  at  the  slow  advance 
of  death.  He  was  skilfully  and  lovingly  tended  by 
his  daughter  Clara,  who  had  chosen  to  take  the 
training  of  a  nurse  in  the  Boston  City  Hospital  a 
few  years  before.  His  two  other  living  daughters 
were  not  far  away,  one  at  home  and  one  with  her 
family  in  Springfield,  and  his  oldest  and  youngest 
sons,  both  men  of  character  and  ability  and  of 
good  standing  in  the  law,  and  both  married,  were 
at  hand  to  take  up,  as  far  as  might  be,  the  load 
their  father  had  laid  down.  His  son  Charles  was 


332      EBENEZER  ROCKWOOD   HOAR 

far  away,  a  man  of  consideration  and  influence  in 
Southern  California.  For  some  years,  the  Judge 
had  had  the  pleasures  which  come  with  grand 
children. 

In  the  tedious  waiting  for  death  he  was  brave 
and  considerate.  Arousing  from  sleep,  he  said  to 
his  daughter  nurse:  — 

"  When  I  wake  up  I  see  you  standing  over  me 
with  an  expression,  half  of  firm  faith  in  Divine 
Providence  and  half  as  if  you  were  afraid  you 
could  n't  go  it  alone." 

His  sense  of  humor  remained  throughout.  He 
said  one  day:  — 

"  I  am  engaged  in  the  not  disreputable,  but  far 
from  attractive,  business  of  dying,  and  I  have  one 
quality  especially  suitable  for  it  —  I  have  plenty 
of  leisure  to  attend  to  it" 

His  daughter  wrote  :  "  Father  said  he  had  no 
fear  of  the  mere  stopping  of  life,  but  he  had  a 
dread  of  pain  —  all  that  ends  with  death.  Then  he 
quoted  these  lines  —  he  did  not  remember  the 
author :  — 

"'Fear  ends  with  death.  Beyond 
I  nothing  know  but  God. ' " 

Another  time  he  said :  "  They  can  do  what  they 
please,  but  they  can  never  make  dying  either 
popular  or  fashionable.  I  have  had  the  use  of  this 
body  a  long  time ;  I  have  had  a  happy  life,  though 
some  of  it  might  have  been  better,  I  suppose." 

His  daughter  said :  "You  have  made  many 


PERSONAL  REMINISCENCES        333 

others  happy."  "That  was  part  of  the  happiness," 
he  answered. 

On  the  last  day  of  January,  1895,  the  strong 
spirit  was  released  from  the  worn-out  body. 

Of  the  funeral,  in  which  Town,  Commonwealth, 
and  Country  had  a  part,  a  lady,  a  cousin  and  con 
temporary  of  Judge  Hoar,  wrote  thus  to  his  sister 
on  the  following  day :  — 

"And  surely  no  king  could  have  had  a  more 
royal  burial  —  the  seal  of  a  noble  life.  The  closed 
shops,  the  silent  streets,  the  simple  church  with 
its  wealth  of  flowers,  the  few  fitting  words  and 
lovely  music  —  above  all,  that  great,  almost  end 
less,  procession  of  men  and  women,  young  and 
old,  who  wished  to  see  the  loved  face  again. 

"  It  made  me  think  of  a  sermon  of  Bishop  Law 
rence's  ...  in  which  he  said  he  thought  the 
best  obituary  notice  he  ever  read  was  that  upon 
David :  — 

"And  David  served  his  generation  according 
to  God,  and  fell  on  sleep.' " 

As  a  citizen,  Judge  Hoar  held  high  the  old  and 
honored  standards,  and  kept  others  to  them. 
He  did  his  duty,  following  his  conscience  in  all 
and  always  postponing  self.  He  was  mindful  of 
others. 

As  a  man  of  law,  he  will  be  remembered  as  hav 
ing  administered  the  law  of  the  land  faithfully, 
while  he  construed  it  broadly,  and  always  recog 
nized  and  bowed  to  the  Higher  Law. 


334      EBENEZER  ROCKWOOD  HOAR 

As  a  statesman,  he  was  one 

Who  never  sold  the  truth  to  serve  the  hour, 
Nor  paltered  with  eternal  God  for  power. 

He  seemed  most  to  resemble  Cincinnatus,  a 
man  to  whom  in  any  emergency  his  fellow  citi 
zens  turned  and  who  never  failed  them;  who  at 
the  call  of  his  country,  his  state,  or  his  town  left 
his  plough  in  the  furrow,  and  when  the  emergency 
had  passed  returned  to  it  again ;  who  never  sought 
office  or  emolument,  and  who  never,  in  the  evil 
fashion  of  to-day,  advertised  himself,  or  strove 
for  personal  reward ;  who  was  always  true  to  the 
high  ideals  of  Massachusetts,  and  never  shrank 
from  any  encounter  with  evil  or  evil  men  for  fear 
of  the  consequences  to  himself.  He  was  uncom 
promising  in  support  of  the  right,  inexorable  in 
opposing  the  wrong,  and  yet  gentle  and  kind  to 
any  one  who  needed  help.  Under  a  stern  exterior 
lay  a  very  tender  heart,  and  his  spoken  and  written 
words,  now  pungent  and  cutting,  now  singularly 
touching,  reveal  his  many-sided  nature.  Unlike 
Sumner,  who  with  untiring  industry  ransacked 
ancient  and  modern  literature  for  quotations  which 
should  support,  illustrate  or  ornament  his  argu 
ment,  the  Judge,  perhaps  more  indolent,  was  con 
tent  to  rely  upon  what  he  found  in  himself,  like 
Lowell's  ideal  of  the  "stalwart  man  .  .  .  fed  from 
within  with  all  the  strength  he  needs."  He  was  a 
master  of  English,  and  no  one  better  than  he 
could  use  the  exact  word  which  his  meaning 


PERSONAL  REMINISCENCES        335 

called  for.  No  one  was  more  felicitous  on  occa 
sion,  whether  his  speech  was  humorous,  earnest 
or  sad. 

His  friend  William  Endicott  wrote  of  his  speech 
on  April  19 :  "I  have  read  it  with  interest  and  ap 
proval,  a  remark  that  I  think  I  can  truthfully 
make  of  everything  of  yours  spoken  or  written 
that  has  come  to  my  notice  during  the  last  fifty 
years  ";  and  many  Massachusetts  men  and  women 
could  echo  this  statement. 

The  words  of  the  prophet  shall  end  this  story  of 
a  life:  — 

Let  us  now  praise  famous  men  .  .  . 

The  Lord  hath  wrought  great  glory  by  them  .  .  . 

Men  renowned  for  their  power,  giving  counsel  by 
their  understanding  .  .  .  Leaders  of  the  people  by 
their  counsels,  and  by  their  knowledge  of  learning 
meet  for  the  people,  wise,  and  eloquent  in  their  instruc 
tions  .  .  .  There  be  of  them  that  have  left  a  name  behind 
them. 

Ecclesiasticus,  xliv. 


INDEX 


ABBOTT,  Josiah  G.,  35. 

Adams,  Charles  Francis,  I,  presides 
at  Anti-Texas  meeting  in  Faneuil 
Hall  (Nov.  1845),  42;  address  of 
Anti-Texas  Com.  written  by,  42, 
43 ;  44,  52, 53,  103,  109, 222,  227, 
259,  315. 

Adams,  Charles  Francis,  II,  his  Life 
of  R.  H.  Dana,  quoted,  19  ;  letter 
to  H.  on  contest  over  his  confir 
mation  as  member  of  the  Su 
preme  Court,  194,  195 ;  quoted  on 
the  same  subject,  197,  198 ;  230, 
231,  255. 

Adams,  John  Quincy,  Pres.  of  U.  S., 
leads  opposition  to  Mexican  War, 
44 ;  60. 

Adirondacks,  camping-party  in, 
144-148. 

Agassiz,  Louis,  145,  146,  148,  154, 
314,  315. 

Akerman,  Amos  T.,  succeeds  H.  as 
Attorney-Gen.,  202,  211,  212, 
215. 

Akers,  Charles,  154  n. 

Alabama,  cruiser,  222. 

Alabama  Claims,  Johnson-Claren 
don  Treaty  concerning,  176  ;  re 
jected  by  Senate,  177  ;  Sumner's 
attitude  on,  178 ;  renewed  nego 
tiations  concerning,  by  Fish  and 
Motley,  178,  and  by  C.  F. 
Adams,  222  seqq. ;  Joint  High 
Commission  appointed,  224  ;  arbi 
tration  of,  provided  for  by  Treaty 
of  Washington,  225,  226 ;  204. 

Alcott,  A.  Bronson,  on  Samuel 
Hoar,  5  ;  324. 

Alexandra,  privateer,  case  of  the, 
139. 

Allen,  Charles,  Chief  Justice  of  Su 
perior  Court  of  Mass.,  55. 

Allen,  Charles,  Justice  of  Supreme 
Judicial  Court  of  Mass.,  quoted 
concerning  H.,  122,  123,  274, 
275. 


American  party.  See  Know -No 
thing  party. 

Ames,  Judge  Seth,  on  Samuel  Hoar, 
5;  35. 

Andover  Creed,  the,  270,  271. 

Andover  Theological  Seminary, 
Visitors  of.  See  Visitors,  etc. 

Andrew,  John  A.,  Governor  of  Mass., 
counsel  for  F.  B.  Sanborn,  126 ; 
nominated  for  governor,  126 ; 
letter  of,  to  Cameron,  introduc 
ing  H.,  129 ;  letter  of  H.  to,  133  ; 
132,  200,  315. 

Antiquarian  Society  of  Concord, 
212. 

Anti-Slavery  Whigs  in  Mass.,  ad 
dress  of,  against  Z.  Taylor,  53- 
65. 

Anti-Texas  Committee,  appointed 
by  Faneuil  Hall  meeting,  42,  43. 

Appleton,  Thomas  Gold,  314. 

Arkansas,  alleged  illegality  of 
state  government  of,  238,  239. 

Ayer,  Dr.  J.  C.,  nominated  for  Con 
gress  over  H.,  and  defeated,  243. 

Babcock,  Orville  E.,  secretary  to 
Pres.  Grant,  184;  and  the  at 
tempt  to  annex  San  Domingo, 
206  seqq. ;  212,  245. 

Banks,  Gen.  Nathaniel  P.,  Governor 
of  Mass.,  appoints  H.  to  Supreme 
Court  of  Mass.,  119;  105,  171,293. 

"  Bar,  etiquette  of  the,"  217. 

Barre",  Col.  Isaac,  17. 

Barrett,  Fay,  326. 

Bartlett,  Charles,  144. 

Bartlett,  Josiah,  12,  298,  299. 

Bartlett,  Sidney,  the  "  Nestor  of  the 
bar,"  26(5 ;  letter  of  H.  to,  307. 

Base-ball  at  Harvard  in  the  thirties, 
21. 

Batchelder,  Mr.,  U.  S.  Marshal, 
killed  by  mob  in  attempt  to  res 
cue  Anthony  Burns,  82. 

Beecher,  Lyman,  9. 


338 


INDEX 


Belknap,  William  W.,  Secretary  of 
War,  190,  192,  256. 

Bemis,  Charles  W.,  H.  C.  1835,  18. 

Bemis,  George,  H.  C.  1835,  18. 

Bennett,  Edmund  II.,  anecdotes  of 
H.  told  by,  92,  93. 

Benton,  Thomas  H.,  105. 

Bernard,  Montague,  224. 

Bigelow,  Chief  Justice  George  T., 
141 ;  resigns  the  Chief  Justice 
ship,  148. 

Binney,  Amos,  145,  146. 

Bird,  Frank  W.,  52. 

Bishop,  Judge,  98. 

Black,  Mr.,  reporter  of  decisions, 
138,  139. 

Blaine,  James  G.,  and  the  Repub 
lican  nomination  in  1876,  251, 
252 ;  why  H.  opposed  his  nomi 
nation,  251,  252;  his  attack  on 
Mass.,  263,  264,  and  G.  F.  Hoar's 
reply,  264 ;  H.'s  suggested  retort 
to,  264 ;  Secretary  of  State  under 
Garfield,  266 ;  and  R.  Conkling, 
266 ;  letter  of  H.  to,  267  ;  Repub 
lican  revolt  on  nomination  of,  in 
1884,  267-269;  H.'s  reasons  for 
supporting  him,  268  ;  236,  265. 

Blake,  Harrison  G.  O.,  H.  C.  1835, 
25,  26. 

Borie,  Adolph  E.,  Secretary  of  the 
Navy,  162. 

Boston,  great  fire  of  1872  in,  230, 
231,  232. 

Boston  Advertiser,  and  the  Free- 
Soil  convention,  56  ;  and  H.'s  ap 
pointment  as  commissioner  un 
der  the  Personal  Liberty  law, 
114  seqq. ;  letter  of  H.  to  editor 
of,  114-116;  41,  118,  119. 

Boston  Courier,  and  the  Free-Soil 
convention,  66. 

Boston  Herald,  abuses  members  of 
Free-Soil  convention,  56 ;  199. 

Boston  Post,  and  the  Anti-Texas 
meeting  in  Concord,  41. 

Boston  Transcript,  279  and  n. 

Boutwell,  George  S.,  elected  gov 
ernor  of  Mass,  by  Coalition  of  1850, 
09 ;  declines  portfolio  of  the  Inte 
rior,  163  ;  and  H.'s  appointment 
as  Attorney-Gen.,  163  seqq. ;  ap 
pointed  Secretary  of  State,  166; 
170,  172,  200,  201. 


Bowles,  Elizabeth,  H.'s  daughter, 
331. 

Bradley,  Joseph  P.,  appointed  to 
U.  S.  Supreme  Court,  198 ;  his  ap 
pointment  alleged  to  be  part  of  a 
scheme  to  obtain  reversal  of  Le 
gal-Tender  decision,  199  seqq. 

Briggs,  George  N.,  Governor  of 
Mass.,  appoints  H.  to  Court  of 
Common  Pleas,  79. 

Brimmer,  Martin,  315. 

Bristow,  Benjamin  H.,  251,  262. 

Brooks,  Caroline  Downes,  J.  R. 
Lowell's  poem  on,  31 ;  marries 
H.  (1840),  32.  And  see  Hoar, 
Caroline  Downes. 

Brooks,  Eben  S.,  H.  C.  1835,  18. 

Brooks,  Nathan,  father  of  Mrs.  H., 
31,  65,  137. 

Brooks,  Bishop  Phillips,  305,  306. 

Brown,  Governor,  of  Tennessee, 
262. 

Brown,  John,  of  Osawatomie,  F.  B. 
Sanborn  arrested  for  complicity 
in  his  raid,  125. 

Browne,  Quincy,  327. 

Buffington,  James,  171. 

Bulkeley,  Rev.  Benjamin  R.,  298. 

Bulkeley,  Rev.  Edward,  3. 

Bulkeley,  Peter,  one  of  the  found 
ers  of  Concord,  300. 

Bullock,  Alex.  H.,  Governor  of 
Mass.,  declines  to  appoint  H. 
Chief  Justice,  148. 

Bunyan,  John,  his  Pilgrim's  Pro 
gress,  8,  9. 

Burns,  Anthony,  fugitive  slave,  at 
tempt  to  rescue,  81  seqq. 

Burnside,  Gen.  Ambrose  E.,  in  Bos 
ton,  139. 

Butler,  Gen.  Benjamin  F.,  Governor 
of  Mass.,  in  leading  practice  in 
Middlesex  County,  108  ;  anecdote 
of,  and  H.,  109;  repeats  the 
charge  that  H.  "packed"  the 
Supreme  Court,  201 ;  seeks  Re 
publican  nomination  for  governor 
in  1871,  228,  and  again  in  1873, 
235;  a  "  Tichborne  Claimant," 
235 ;  opposes  H.'s  candidacy  for 
U.  S.  Senate,  241 ;  obtains  Re 
publican  nomination  for  Congress 
in  Middlesex  in  1876,  252  ;  is  op 
posed  by  H.  as  an  independent 


INDEX 


339 


candidate,  252  ;  his  influence  over 
Pres.  Grant,  253,  254,  255;  his 
broken  pledges  to  the  electors, 
254 ;  is  elected,  255  ;  opposes  elec 
tion  of  G-  F.  Hoar  to  U.  S.  Sen 
ate,  200,  261 ;  35, 132, 170  n.,  171, 
250  and  n.,  256,  259,  260, 265,  313. 

Butlerism  in  Mass.,  261,  262. 

Buttrick,  Ephraira,  35. 

Buttrick,  Humphrey,  144. 

Cabot,  J.  Eliot,  315. 

Calhoun,  John  C.,  Secretary  of 
State,  concludes  treaty  for  annex 
ation  of  Texas,  38  ;  60. 

Cameron,  Simon,  Secretary  of  War, 
129,  130. 

Carlyle,  Thomas,  his  impressions  of 
H.,  45,  46. 

Carpenter,  Gen.,  of  Rhode  Island, 
104. 

"  Carpet-bag  "  senators,  and  H.'s 
resignation  as  Attorney-Gen., 
210,  211. 

Carter,  James  C.,  278. 

Cass,  Lewis,  Democratic  candidate 
for  president  in  1848,  55,  67,  77. 

Cattell,  Alexander  G.,  U.  S.  Sena 
tor,  191. 

Chandler,  Peleg  W.,  168. 

Chandler,  Zachariah,  U.  S.  Senator, 
offers  resolution  calling  on  the 
Attorney-Gen,  to  report  on  cer 
tain  cases,  183  ;  angered  by  H.'s 
refusal  to  reply,  183  ;  198. 

Channing,  Prof.  Edward  T.,  25. 

Charming,  William  Ellery,  42. 

Chapman,  Chief  Justice  Reuben  A., 
favors  Evarts  for  Chief  Justice 
of  U.  S.,  141 ;  appointed  Chief 
Justice  of  Mass,  to  succeed  Bige- 
low,  148 ;  death  of,  234 ;  quoted 
concerning  change  in  H.'s  court 
manners  after  his  return  from 
Washington,  283. 

Chase,  Salmon  P.,  Chief  Justice  of 
U.  S.,  105, 130, 131, 142, 143, 144 ; 
as  Secretary  of  the  Treasury 
drew  the  Legal-Tender  Act,  and 
as  Chief  Justice  pronounced  it 
unconstitutional,  200  ;  his  death, 
234 ;  Evarts's  eulogy  of,  criticized 
by  H.,  242,  243  ;  205. 

Chatham,  William  Pitt,  Earl  of,  17. 


Chelmsford,  Frederic  A.  Thesiger, 

Lord,  280. 
Choate,  Rufus,  and  the  defence  of 

William  Wyman,  35,  36  ;  defends 

Fugitive -Slave  law  and  attacks 

Free-Soilers,  104  ;   102. 
Christian  Register,  The,  306. 
Circuit  Courts  of   U.  S.,  additional 

judgeships  in,  181. 
Civil  Rights  bill,  the,  240. 
Civil   War,   the,   opening   of,  127; 

slow  progress  of,  136,  137  ;   close 

of,  144. 
Claflin,  William,  Governor  of  Mass., 

quoted,  50,  148,  282. 
Clarendon,  George  W.  F.  Villiers, 

Earl  of,  and  the  Alabama  Claims, 

176,  177. 
Class  of  1835,  Harvard  College,  18 

seqq.  ;  the  "  Rebellion  "  of  1831, 

18,  19,  20  ;  graduation  of,  25, 26  ; 
H.'s  speech  at  fiftieth  anniversary 
of  graduation  of,  287,  288. 

Clay,  Henry,  28,  37. 

Clerks  of  Courts,  proposal  to  make 
office  of,  elective,  102. 

Cleveland,  Grover,  and  the  revolt 
against  Blaine,  267. 

Clifford,  Judge  Nathan,  163. 

Coalition  of  1850,  98-101 ;  H.  op 
posed  to,  99. 

Cockburn,  Sir  Alexander,  227. 

Common  Pleas,  Court  of,  H.  ap 
pointed  to,  79. 

Common  Prayer,  Book  of,  and  its 
application  to  Concord,  306. 

Commonwealth  vs.  Tuey,  H.'s 
charge  to  jury  in,  settled  the  law 
in  Mass,  concerning  duties  of  ju 
rors  in  case  of  inability  to  agree, 
89-91. 

Concord,  Mass.,  John  Hoar  settles 
at,  2 ;  in  King  Philip's  War,  3 ; 
in  the  forties,  33,  34  ;  H.  begins 
practice  at,  33 ;  a  shire  town,  33 ; 
sessions  of  court  at,  33,  34;  Anti- 
Texas  meetings  at,  in  1845,  unani 
mously  adopt  W.  L.  Garrison's 
nullification  resolution,  40,  41 J 
Free-Soil  convention  at  (1848), 
62  ;  rally  at,  64,  65  ;  excitement 
at,  caused  by  arrest  of  F.  B.  San- 
born,  125;  H.'s  speech  at,  Apr. 

19,  1861,  128,  129 ;  reception  to 


340 


INDEX 


returning  troops  at,  144  ;  inscrip 
tion  for  soldiers'  monument  writ 
ten  by  H.,  144  ;  dedication  of  sol 
diers'  monument  at,  159  ;  public 
approval  of  H.'s  appointment  as 
Attorney-Gen,  at,  169,  170, -and 
H.,  246  seqq.;  H.'s  loyalty  to,  297, 
298  ;  H.'s  influence  in  town  meet 
ing,  310;  the  Social  Circle,  311, 
312;  the  Antiquarian  Society, 
312  ;  change  in  character  of,  312  ; 
Main  St.,  and  the  State  Highway 
Commission,  327  ;  celebration  of 
Patriots'  Day,  1894,  327,  328. 

Concord  Artillery,  departure  of,  for 
the  war,  127-129. 

Concord  Fight,  celebration  of  75th 
anniversary  of,  106 ;  celebration 
of  centennial  of,  244,  246  seqq. 

Concord  School  of  Philosophy,  313. 

Conkling,  Roscoe,  171,  266. 

"  Conscience  Whigs,"  origin  of  term, 
43,  44 ;  approve  Palfrey's  course 
in  Congress,  47  ;  support  Webster 
for  president,  51. 

Constitution  of  Mass.,  new,  proposed 
by  Convention  of  1853,  opposed 
by  H.  and  others,  and  defeated 
by  the  people,  101  seqq. 

Corcoran,  William  W.,  216. 

Cotton  manufacturers  in  Mass.,  at 
titude  of,  in  reference  to  slavery, 
43. 

"  Cotton  Whigs,"  43,  44. 

Cox,  Jacob  D  ,  Secretary  of  the  In 
terior,  quoted  concerning  H.'s 
recommendations  for  judicial  ap 
pointments,  181,  182;  letter  of, 
to  H.,  on  the  contest  over  confir 
mation  of  his  nomination  to  the 
U.  S.  Supreme  Court,  190-193 ;  on 
the  charge  that  the  court  was 
packed,  200,  201 ;  tells  the  story 
of  H.'s  resignation  as  Attorney- 
Gen.,  largely  in  H.'s  own  words, 
207-211 ;  on  Pres.  Grant's  silence 
on  that  subject,  212 ;  162,  245. 

Credit  Mobilier  scandal,  236. 

Creswell,  John  A.  J.,  Poatmaster- 
Gen.,  162,  171,  174. 

Crocker,  Mr.,  105. 

Cuba,  insurrection  in,  179,  180 ; 
question  of  recognition  of  insur 
gents  in,  179,  180. 


Currency,  inflation  of  the,  236,  237. 
Curtis,  George  William,  248,  267. 
Gushing,  Caleb,  quoted  concerning 

the  Treaty  of  Washington,  226, 

227;  178,  179,234. 

Dana,  Richard  H.,  H.  C.  1835,  his 
Two  Years  before  the  Mast,  18 ; 
47,  65,  102, 103, 104, 110,  250  and 
n.,  314. 

Davis,  Capt.,  249. 

Davis,  Cummings,  312. 

Davis,  Judge  David,  262. 

Davis,  Jefferson,  152. 

Davis,  J.  C.  Bancroft,  105,  216. 

Dawes,  Henry  L.,  obtains  nomina 
tion  for  U.  S.  Senator  over  H., 
242  ;  171,  236. 

Day,  Benjamin,  94. 

De  Grey  and  Ripon,  George  F.  S. 
Robinson,  Earl,  224. 

Deland,  Mrs.  Margaret,  quoted,  27. 

Democrats,  coalition  of  Free-Soilers 
and,  98,  99,  101 ;  H.'s  invincible 
repugnance  to,  99,  267. 

Detroit  Advertiser,  279  n. 

Devens,  Charles,  261. 

Dexter,  Franklin,  35. 

Dickinson,  Mr.,  105. 

Dogs,  H.'s  liking  for,  310. 

Dwight,  John  S.,  314. 

Edmunds,  George  F.,  U.  S.  Senator, 
said  by  G.  F.  Hoar  to  have  been 
responsible  for  rejection  of  H.'s 
nomination  to  Supreme  Court. 
197 ;  240,  250. 

Education  in  the  early  19th  century, 
23  seqq. 

Electoral  Commission  of  1876-77, 
260. 

Eliot,  Charles  W.,  230, 231, 267, 315. 

Eliot,  Samuel  A.,  143. 

"  Elsinore,"  street  in  Concord,  312. 

Emancipation  Proclamation,  the, 
143. 

Emerson,  Ellen,  quoted  concerning 
the  authorship  of  a  famous  jeu 
a" esprit,  281. 

Emerson,  Mrs.  Lidian  (Jackson), 
285. 

Emerson,  Ralph  Waldo,  on  Samuel 
Hoar,  9, 10 ;  letter  of  Carlyle  to, 
concerning  II.,  45,  46,  and  his  re- 


INDEX 


341 


ply,  46 ;  his  Society  and  Solitude, 
203 ;  letter  of  H.  to,  on  Sumner's 
death,  239,  240;  H.'s  felicitous 
quotation  from  his  Brahma,  278  ; 
gift  of  his  friends  after  the  burn 
ing  of  his  house,  285-287 ;  letter 
to  II.  thereon,  286-287 ;  and  the 
Social  Circle,  311 ;  his  Journal 
quoted,  137,  138,  214,  219 ;  6,  7, 
42,  145,  146,  148,  150,  151,  159, 
172,  220,  309,  314,  315,  316,  321. 

Endicott,  William,  quoted,  335. 

England.  See  Great  Britain. 

Epidemic  among  horsea  in  1872, 
230. 

"  Etiquette  of  the  bar,"  the,  217. 

Eustis,  Frederick  A.,  H.  C.  1835, 18. 

Evarts,  Rev.  Prescott,  305. 

Evarts,  William  Maxwell,  his  "Tab 
ernacle  Speech,"  117;  letter  of 
H.  thereon,  117;  letter  of,  to  H. 
on  E.'s  candidacy  for  the  U.  S. 
Senate,  126,  127,  and  on  Samuel 
Hoar's  war  experience,  136 ;  mis 
sion  of,  to  England,  on  question 
of  privateers  fitting  out  in  English 
ports,  138 ;  letter  of  H.  to,  thereon, 
138,  139;  candidate  for  Chief 
Justice  (1864),  141  seqq. ;  letters 
of  H.  to,  on  his  candidacy,  141- 
144 ;  of  counsel  for  Andrew  John 
son,  and  appointed  Attorney-Gen, 
by  him,  149,  150 ;  letter  of  H.  to, 
thereon,  149 ;  again  a  candidate 
for  Chief  Justice  (1873),  234,  235  ; 
letters  of  H.  to,  thereon,  235  ;  his 
eulogy  of  Chief  Justice  Chase, 
242  'j  urges  H.  to  accept  appoint 
ment  on  commission  to  visit 
Louisiana,  262,  and  to  act  as  coun 
sel  for  the  U.  S.  before  the  Fish 
ery  Commission,  263 ;  writes  H. 
concerning  the  authorship  of  a 
famous  jeu  d'esprit,  279 ;  on  the 
Congressional  honors  of  the  Hoar 
family,  293,  294;  167,  176,  259. 

Fabens,  Francis  A.,  H.  C.  1835,  18. 

Faneuil  Hall,  Anti-Texas  meetings 
in,  40,  42  ;  ratification  meeting  of 
Free-Soilers  in,  57,  58 ;  Republi 
can  ratification  meeting  in  (1856), 
117. 

Farley,  George  F.,  35. 


Farrar,  George,  61. 

Farrar,  John,  317. 

Farrars,  the,  of  Lincoln,  14,  15. 

Fay,  Sullivan,  61,  137. 

Felton,  Cornelius  C.,  154,  314. 

Field,  Walbridge  A.,  Chief  Justice 
of  Mass.  Supreme  Court,  on  H. 
as  a  judge,  121,  122,  123 ;  on  H.'s 
work  as  Attorney-Gen,,  175,  and 
as  a  practising  lawyer,  259. 

Fields,  Mrs.  Annie,  quoted,  282, 
283. 

Fields,  James  T.,  157,  315. 

First  Parish  of  Concord,  298,  301 
seqq. 

Fish,  Hamilton,  Secretary  of  State, 
175 ;  negotiations  with  England 
on  Alabama  Claims,  178 ;  opposes 
recognition  of  belligerency  of  Cu 
ban  insurgents,  179 ;  200, 216,224. 

Flint,  Henry,  2. 

Flint,  Mrs.  Henry,  2. 

Foot-ball  at  Harvard  in  the  thirties, 
21,  22. 

Foote,  Henry  S.,  U.  S.  Senator,  60. 

Forbes,  Edith  Emerson  (Mrs.  Wil 
liam  H.  F.),  letter  of  H.  to,  325. 

Forbes,  John  M.,  letters  of  H.  to, 
as  agent  of  Mass,  in  Washington, 
130-132  ;  his  opinion  of  Lincoln, 
140 ;  letter  of  H.  to,  on  prospect 
of  Lincoln's  renomination,  140, 
141,  and  on  Sumner,  177;  a  val 
ued  adviser,  204 ;  letters  of  H.  to, 
on  Alabama  Claims,  204,  205,  on 
the  "  etiquette  of  the  bar,"  217, 
and  on  Sherman's  "  resumption  " 
bill,  237 ;  H.  on  his  independence 
in  politics,  292, 294 ;  letters  of  H. 
to,  thereon,  292,  293,  294 ;  letters 
of  H.  to,  in  his  last  years,  322-324, 
314. 

"  Force  Bill,  the,"  Republican  op 
position  to,  238,  239;  fails  of 
passage  in  Senate,  239. 

Foster,  John  W.,  263. 

Fox,  James  A.,  293. 

Free-Soilers,  convention  of,  at  Wor 
cester,  55-57;  participants  in, 
55  ;  criticized  and  sneered  at,  56  ; 
H.  included  among,  56;  and  D. 
Webster,  57  ;  ratification  meeting 
at  Faneuil  Hall,  57-58;  small 
vote  cast  by,  in  1848,  65 ;  coali- 


342 


INDEX 


tion  of  Democrats  and,  98,  99, 
101. 

Fremont,  John  C.,  Republican  nomi 
nee  for  president  in  1856,  117. 

French,  Daniel  C.,  247. 

Frost,  Rev.  Barzillai,  on  Samuel 
Hoar,  10,  11;  31,  298. 

Fugitive-Slave  law,  and  the  case 
of  Anthony  Burns,  80  seqq. ;  114. 

Gardner,  Henry  J.,  Governor  of 
Mass.,  appoints  H.  commissioner 
under  Personal  Liberty  law,  114. 

Garfield,  James  A.,  Pres.  of  U.  S., 
his  contest  with  Conkling  and 
Platt,  266 ;  192. 

Gargan,  Thomas  J.,  246. 

Garrison,  John,  75. 

Garrison,  William  Lloyd,  nullifica 
tion  resolutions  offered  by,  at 
Concord  (1845),  41,  42;  on  H.'s 
speech  at  Free-Soil  ratification 
meeting,  57,  58 ;  55. 

Geneva  Arbitration,  250. 

Godkin,  E.  L.,  315. 

Goodwin,  William  W.,  154. 

Goulding,  F.  P.,  quoted  concerning 
H.,  123,  124. 

Grant,  Mrs.  Julia  Dent,  203. 

Grant,  Ulysses  S.,  Pres.  of  U.  S., 
and  his  choice  of  a  cabinet,  162 
seqq. ;  his  dislike  of  politicians, 
162;  his  first  cabinet  list,  162; 
appoints  H.  Attorney-Gen.,  162  ; 
and  Stewart's  appointment  as 
Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  162, 
163,  164,  166 ;  the  story  of  H.'s 
appointment,  163-166 ;  Stewart's 
nomination  withdrawn,  166  ;  fa 
vors  recognition  of  belligerency 
of  Cuban  insurgents,  179 ;  accepts 
H.'s  advice  in  matter  of  judicial 
appointments,  182,  183 ;  pressure 
upon,  to  dismiss  H.,  184;  offers 
to  appoint  him  to  Supreme  Court, 
184 ;  and  the  contest  in  the  Sen 
ate  over  H.'s  nomination,  188 
seqq. ;  refuses  to  withdraw  the 
nomination,  192,  195,  197;  and 
the  charge  of  packing  the  Su 
preme  Court,  199  seqq. ;  and  the 
Biglow  Papers,  203;  and  San 
Domingo,  206  seqq. ;  angered  by 
Sumner's  opposition,  206,  207; 


demands  H.'s  resignation  without 
giving  reasons,  208,  209 ;  his  in 
terview  with  H.,  209-211;  H.'s 
resignation  never  mentioned  to 
his  cabinet,  212 ;  H.'s  parting 
letter  to,  213;  his  message  to 
Congress  on  Alabama  Claims 
(1871),  223 ;  letter  of  H.  to,  on 
his  reelection,  232,  233 ;  and  the 
Chief  Justiceship,  234,  235; 
vetoes  the  "inflation  bill,"  236; 
H.'s  relations  with,  244-246 ;  not 
a  statesman,  245 ;  "  a  pretty  poor 
President,"  245;  his  opinion  of 
H.,  246  ;  Butler's  influence  over, 
253,  254,  255  ;  141,  167, 168, 169, 
170, 171, 172, 173, 175, 180,  181, 
186,  187,  204,  215,  229,  237,  238, 
247,  248,  250,  261,  268,  294. 

Gray,  Asa,  154,  315. 

Gray,  Horace,  Chief  Justice  Mass. 
Supreme  Court,  H.'s  law  partner, 
1857-1859,  107;  favors  Evarts's 
appointment  as  Chief  Justice  of 
U.  S.,  141;  writes  H.  on  his 
nomination  to  the  Supreme  Court, 
186,  187  ;  30,  234,  315. 

Gray,  William,  132. 

Great  Britain,  relations  with,  175 
seqq. ;  the  Alabama  Claims  ne 
gotiations  with,  176-178,  223 
seqq. ;  members  of  Joint  High 
Commission  named  by,  224 ;  and 
the  Treaty  of  Washington,  225, 
226. 

Greeley,  Horace,  229,  267. 

Greenhalge,  Frederic  T.,  Governor 
of  Mass.,  quoted  concerning  H., 
108,  124. 

Grier,  Robert  C.,  Justice  of  U.  S. 
Supreme  Court,  198,  200. 

Hale,  Rev.  E.  E.,  quoted  concern 
ing  H.,  304. 

Hale,  John  P.,  U.  S.  Senator,  142. 

Hammond,  John  W.,  Judge  of 
Mass.  Supreme  Court,  120. 

Harlan,  John  M.,  262. 

Harrison, William  H.,  Pres.  of  U.  S., 
35,  36,  38. 

Harrison  campaign  of  1840,  35,  36. 

Harvard,  John,  1. 

Harvard  College,  Leonard  Hoar 
president  of,  2;  Samuel  Hoar's 


INDEX 


343 


service  to,  4 ;  H.  on  life  at,  in  the 
thirties,  16,  17,  18,  20,  21  ;  ath 
letic  sports  of  that  period,  21, 
22 ;  military  company  at,  22 ; 
the  "Med.  Fac.,"  22,  23;  H.'s 
service  on  the  Board  of  Overseers 
and  Corporation,  118;  his  views 
on  the  respective  functions  of  the 
two  governing  boards,  118,  119; 
Phi  Beta  Kappa  dinner  of  1865, 
153,  154 ;  Commemoration  Day 
at,  155;  confers  honorary  LL.D. 
on  H.,  160 ;  H.'s  speech  at  Alum 
ni  dinner,  1869,  217-219;  H.'s 
love  for,  230,  231. 

Harvard  Lav  School,  H.  takes  de 
gree  at,  30. 

Hawthorne,  Nathaniel,  at  the  Satur 
day  Club,  314,  316. 

Hayes,  Rutherford  B.,  Pres.  of 
U.  S.,  his  cabinet,  261 ;  H.  on  the 
hopeful  outlook  for  his  adminis 
tration,  261;  251. 

Hepburn  vs.  Griswold.  See  Legal- 
Tender  Act. 

Herbert,  George,  quoted,  281. 

Heywood,  George,  137. 

Hill,  Frederic  T.,  his  Decisive  Bat 
tles  of  the  Law,  quoted,  223, 
225. 

Hoar,  Caroline,  H.'s  daughter,  32, 
306,  331. 

Hoar,  Caroline  Downes  (Brooks), 
wife  of  H.,  their  married  life,  and 
their  children,  32 ;  illness  of,  73 
seqq.  ;  letter  of  G.  F.  Hoar  to,  on 
H.'s  appointment  as  Attorney- 
Gen.,  170,  171 ;  her  death,  331 ; 
extracts  from  letters  of  H.  to,  on 
many  subjects,  74-78, 93-98, 105, 
145-148,  215,  216,  306;  167,  175, 
176,  320.  And  see  Brooks,  Caro 
line  Downes. 

Hoar,  Charles,  Sheriff  of  Glouces 
tershire,  and  husband  of  Joanna 
Hoar,  1,  2  n. 

Hoar,  Charles  Emerson,  H.'s  son, 
quoted  concerning  H.'s  affection 
for  his  children,  135  ;  supports 
Cleveland  against  Blaine,  267  ;  32, 
214,  331,  332. 

Hoar,  Clara  D.,  H.'s  daughter,  32, 
331,  332. 

Hoar,  Daniel,  son  of  John,  I,  3. 


HOAR,  EBENEZER  ROCKWOOD  : 

Ancestry,  birth,  and  education. — 
Supposititious  letter  of  Joanna 
Hoar,  1,  2;  his  ancestors  at  Con 
cord  Bridge,  3 ;  on  his  father's 
character,  5,  6;  some  suggested 
progenitors  of,  6 ;  his  birth,  7  ; 
named  for  Ebenezer  Rockwood, 
7 ;  home  influences  of  his  child 
hood,  8,  9  ;  anecdote  of,  and  Pil 
grim's  Progress,  9  ;  his  sister  Eliz 
abeth's  History  of,  11,  12;  his 
quickness  in  repartee  illustrated, 
13  ;  his  picnic  with  H.  Vose,  13  ;  his 
sketch  of  his  life  in  his  Class- 
book,  quoted,  14,  10,  17  ,  26 ;  at 
the  Village  Academy,  14,  15, 
16;  in  Lincoln,  14,  15;  injury 
to  his  foot,  15  ;  enters  Harvard 
(1831),  16;  his  views  on  his  col 
lege  life  as  given  in  the  Class- 
book,  16,  17,  and  after  the 
lapse  of  fifty  years,  17,  18  ;  on 
Pres.  Josiah  Quincy,  17,  18 ;  and 
the  "  Rebellion  "  of  1831, 19,  20 ; 
his  speech  at  Commencement, 
quoted,  20,  21;  and  college  sports, 
21 ;  and  the  "  Med.  Fac.,"  22,  23 ; 
general  view  of  his  education,  23 
seqq.;  the  quality  of  his  mind,  24 ; 
his  dissertation  on  the  Study  of 
the  Fine  Arts,  quoted,  24,  25  ;  his 
last  two  years  in  college,  25,  26  ; 
and  Prof.  Channing,  25 ;  gradu 
ates  third  in  his  class,  25  ;  his 
Commencement  part,  25  ;  on  Class 
Committee,  26 ;  C.  W.  Palf  ray  on, 
26. 

Personal.  —  Teacher  in  school 
at  Pittsburg,  26-28;  and  Lois 
Wade  (Mrs.  Campbell),  27;  travels 
in  Kentucky,  28 ;  begins  the  study 
of  law  in  Concord,  28 ;  describes  his 
life  there  in  letter  to  Lois  Wade, 
29,  30;  reads  Plato  with  Miss 
Whiting,  29,  30  ;  at  Harvard  Law 
School,  30, 31 ;  in  Judge  Wash- 
burn's  office  in  Worcester,  30  ; 
Judge  Gray  on  his  assiduity  as  a 
student,  30  ;  admitted  to  the  bar 
(1839),  30 ;  marries  Caroline  D. 
Brooks,  32 ;  their  married  life 
and  their  children,  32 ;  his  only 
European  journey,  45-47 ;  Car- 


344 


INDEX 


lyle's  impressions  of,  45, 46;  swims 
the  Tiber,  46,  47;  returns  to 
America,  47  ;  his  first  visit  to 
Washington  described  in  letter  to 
Mrs.  H.,  105 ;  presides  at  celebra 
tion  of  75th  anniversary  of  Con 
cord  Fight,  106;  his  service  on 
governing  boards  of  Harvard, 
1857-1887, 118  ;  his  view  of  their 
respective  functions,  118,  119  ;  in 
Washington  as  agent  of  Mass., 
early  in  the  war,  129,  130-132 ; 
his  characteristics  as  a  parent, 
134,  135 ;  quoted  concerning  his 
son  Sam's  war  experience,  136 ; 
Emerson's  Journal  on,  137,  138; 
on  Chief  Justice  Taney,  138 ;  at 
reception  to  Concord's  returning 
troops,  144 ;  writes  inscription  for 
soldiers'  monument  at  Concord, 
144 ;  trip  to  the  Adirondacks  with 
Stillman's  party,  described  in  let 
ter  to  Mrs.  H.,  145-148 ;  friendship 
with  Lowell,  as  revealed  in  his 
letters,  150-161 ;  at  the  Phi  Beta 
Kappa  dinner,  155  ;  on  Lowell's 
Commemoration  Odet  155,  156 ; 
Biglow  Papers,  2d  series,  dedi 
cated  to,  156-158  ;  honorary  de 
grees  at  Harvard  and  Williams, 
160 ;  on  Lowell's  50th  birthday, 
161  ;  suggestion  of  gift  of  house 
in  Washington  to,  168,  169 ;  re 
lations  with  his  son  Samuel,  176 ; 
once  more  in  Concord,  214,  215  ; 
his  speech  at  Commencement, 
1869,  217-219 ;  his  service  on  the 
Joint  High  Commission  on  Al 
abama  Claims,  224-226;  his 
"  crest,"  227  ;  his  speech  at  Com 
mencement,  1871, 227 ;  anecdote 
of,  228;  his  love  for  Harvard 
College,  230,  231;  describes  Sum- 
ner's  last  moments  in  letter  to 
Emerson,  239-240  ;  his  eulogy  of 
Sumner  in  the  "House  of  Rep 
resentatives,  240,  241 ;  his  opinion 
of  Chief  Justice  Chase,  243 ;  his 
opinion  of  and  relations  with 
President  Grant,  243-246;  as  a 
citizen  of  Concord,  246;  at  the 
centennial  celebration  of  Concord 
Fight,  246  seqq. ;  his  home  life 
after  1876, 257  seqq. ;  declines  to 


act  as  counsel  for  the  U.  S.  before 
the  Fishery  Commission,  263  ;  ill 
health  of,  265  ;  president  of  Bos 
ton  Bar  Association,  265  ;  at  the 
bar  dinner  in  1879,  265,  266; 
pursuits  of  his  later  years,  269  ; 
his  well-stored  memory  and  sound 
common  sense,  276  ;  his  stern,  un 
compromising  New  England  con 
science,  277 ;  examples  of  his  wit, 
277  seqq. ;  was  he  the  author  of 
a  famous  jeu  d'esprit  ?  278-281, 
279  n.;  letters  from  Evarts  there 
on,  279,  2SO  ;  writes  W.  G.  Rus 
sell  concerning  his  portrait,  281 ; 
his  wit  often  gave  offence,  but 
not  with  intention,  282 ;  Gov. 
Claflin  and  Mrs.  Fields  quoted 
thereon,  282,  283;  likened  to 
"Isrel"  in  Lowell's  The  Two 
Gunners,  283 ;  his  "  little  brother" 
G.  F.  H.,  283,  284  ;  his  affection 
ate  relations  with  G.  F.  H.,  284  ; 
his  real  kindness  of  heart,  284- 
287, 303, 304 ;  and  the  gift  to  R.W. 
Emerson,  285-287  ;  letter  to  Le 
Baron  Russell,  and  from  R.W. 
E.,  thereon,  285-287  ;  speech  at 
the  50th  anniversary  of  gradua 
tion,  287,  288;  letter  to  J.  B. 
Thayer  on  the  Phi  Beta  Kappa, 
289;  his  golden  wedding,  290, 
293,  319,  320 ;  Henry  Lee's  trib 
utes  to,  291,  295, 296  ;  increasing 
ill  health,  295 ;  his  personal  ap 
pearance,  296, 297  ;  his  loyalty  to 
Concord,  297,  298;  his  friends 
and  cronies  there,  298,  299 ;  and 
the  Concord  Lyceum,  300;  and 
the  Town  Library,  301,  312;  the 
chief  pillar  of  the  First  Parish, 
301  seqq. ;  his  religious  belief, 
302,  304-306;  his  niece's  testi 
mony  on  that  subject,  302  ;  in  the 
Unitarian  Association,  303,  304; 
E.  E.  Hale  quoted  concerning, 
304;  his  attitude  toward  other 
denominations,  304-306 ;  anec 
dotes  relating  thereto,  305,  306  ; 
and  Bishop  Brooks,  305,  306; 
Concord  and  the  prayer  book,  306  ; 
letter  of,  to  Mrs.  H.,  describing 
his  Sunday  at  Sharon  Springs, 
306 ;  not  prone  to  adopt  "reforms" 


INDEX 


345 


in  diet,  307 ;  letter  to  S.  Bartlett 
on  a  gift  of  champagne,  307—308 ; 
his  use  of  tobacco  and  his  im 
paired  digestion,  308 ;  opposed  to 
woman  suffrage,  309;  contemp 
tuous  of  Spiritualism,  309  ;  his  in 
fluence  in  town  meeting,  3 10,  311 ; 
and  the  Social  Circle,  311;  and  the 
Antiquarian  Society,  313  ;  regrets 
the  transformation  in  the  charac 
ter  of  Concord,  312,  313 ;  his  atti 
tude  toward  city  men  and  city 
ways,  described  by  Col.  Lee,  313, 
314 ;  and  the  Saturday  Club,  314- 
31(5 ;  and  his  brother  Edward, 
317 ;  his  poem  to  John  Holmes, 
318,  319 ;  anecdotes  of,  320,  321 ; 
his  dread  of  physical  pain,  321 ; 
correspondence  with  J.  M.  Forbes, 
322-324  ;  the  infirmities  of  age, 
322, 323  ;  on  a  gift  of  venison,  323  ; 
his  unchanged  courage,  wit,  and 
affection,  325 ;  his  devotion  to 
whist,  326,  327 ;  unabated  inter 
est  in  town  affairs,  327-329 ;  his 
speech  on  Patriots'  Day,  1894, 
328,  329 ;  extracts  from  late  let 
ters  to  classmates  and  friends, 
329-331  ;  his  ideal  of  a  successful 
life,  330 ;  his  last  days,  331-333  ; 
his  sense  of  humor  undying,  332  ; 
his  death  (Jan.  31,  1895),  333  ;  his 
funeral  described,  333 ;  review 
of  his  life  and  character,  333- 
335  ;  compared  to  Lowell's  ideal 
"stalwart  man,"  334. 

Professional.^ — Begins  practice 
at  Concord,  33  ;  immediate  suc 
cess,  34  seqq. ;  wins  a  high  posi 
tion  at  the  Middlesex  bar,  35  ;  his 
contemporaries,  35  ;  successful 
defence  of  W.  Wyman,  35,  36  ; 
appointed  judge  of  the  Court  of 
Common  Pleas  by  Gov.  Briggs, 
79 ;  his  reasons  for  quitting  prac 
tice  so  early,  79  ;  his  services  in 
that  court,  79,  80 ;  on  the  Fugitive- 
Slave  law,  SO  seqq.  ;  his  charge 
to  the  Grand  Jury  of  Suffolk 
concerning  the  attempted  rescue 

1  It  seemed  more  convenient  and  more 
appropriate  to  index  Judge  Hoar's  Attor 
ney-Generalship  as  an  episode  in  the  po 
litical  part  of  his  career. 


of  Anthony  Burns,  81,  82-89; 
upholds  authority  of  U.  S.  Su 
preme  Court,  83  seqq. ;  his  charge 
in  Commonwealth  vs.  Tuey  on 
the  duties  of  jurors,  89-91 ;  an 
estimate  of  his  qualities  as  a 
judge,  91,  92 ;  anecdotes  of,  92, 
93 ;  his  life  on  the  bench  de 
scribed  in  letters  to  Mrs.  H.,  93- 
98 ;  resigns  from  the  bench 
(1855),  107 ;  resumes  practice, 
with  Horace  Gray,  107;  little 
trace  remains  of  his  professional 
work,  107,  108;  B.  F.  Butler  a 
frequent  opponent,  108;  anec 
dote  of  Butler  and,  109;  ap 
pointed  justice  of  Supreme  Judi 
cial  Court  by  Gov.  Banks  (1859), 
119;  his  ten  years'  service  on 
that  court,  119  seqq.  ;  his  court 
manners,  120  ;  his  characteristics 
as  a  judge,  120,  121  ;  his  re 
ported  judgments,  120  seqq.  ; 
opinions  of  various  contempora 
ries  quoted,  121  seqq. ;  the  Su 
preme  Court  a  hard-working 
court,  124,  125;  issues  writ  of 
habeas  corpus  for  F.  B.  Sanborn, 
arrested  for  complicity  in  John 
Brown's  raid,  125,  120  ;  on  the 
shortcomings  of  divers  reporters 
of  decisions  of  U.  S.  Supreme 
Court,  138,  139 ;  favors  Evarta'a 
appointment  as  Chief  Justice  of 
U.  S.,  141,  144 ;  and  the  succes 
sion  to  Chief  Justice  Bigelow, 
148  ;  resigns  his  seat  on  Supreme 
Court  to  become  Attorney-Gen. 
of  U.  S.,  169;  his  official  task 
and  its  performance  described  by 
Chief  Justice  Field,  175;  re 
turns  to  practice  once  more,  220, 
228,  244;  his  practice  rapidly 
growing,  233  ;  the  Jumel  Case, 
233,  234  ;  declines  Chief  Justice 
ship  of  Mass.,  234 ;  favors 
Evarts's  appointment  as  Chief 
Justice  of  U.  S.,  234,  235  ;  serves 
on  commission  to  revise  statutes 
of  U.  S.,  239;  his  professional 
life  after  1876,  257  seqq. ;  his 
small  fees,  259;  Chief  Justice 
Field  quoted  concerning  his 
practice,  259 ;  counsel  for  defend- 


346 


INDEX 


ants  in  Smyth  vs.  Visitors  of 
Andover  Theological  Seminary, 
270-273 ;  peculiarity  of  his  posi 
tion  in  that  case,  as  a  stanch 
Unitarian,  270 ;  his  argument, 
270-272 ;  anecdotes  of  his  prac 
tice.  274  seqq. ;  his  distinguishing 
traits  as  a  lawyer,  275,  276 ; 
Chief  Justice  Chapman  quoted 
concerning  the  change  in  his 
court  manners  after  his  return 
from  Washington,  283. 

Political. —  Active  in  politics  on 
Whig  side  in  campaigns  of  1840 
and  1844,  36  seqq. ;  in  the  tem 
perance  movement,  38 ;  opposed 
to  annexation  of  Texas,  39  ;  at 
anti-annexation  meetings  in  Con 
cord  (1845),  40,  41  ;  on  Anti- 
Texas  Committee,  42 ;  in  Mass. 
Senate  (1846),  43  ;  on  Whig  State 
Committee,  44;  and  J.  G.  Pal 
frey's  election  to  Congress,  45; 
approves  Palfrey's  course  there, 
48-50  ;  a  leader  in  the  struggle  in 
Mass,  in  1848,  50 ;  and  Webster's 
candidacy  for  president,  51,  52  ; 
active  in  early  campaign  of  1848, 
52  seqq.  ;  his  address  "  To  the 
People  of  Massachusetts,"  in  op 
position  to  Taylor,  53-55;  in 
Free-Soil  convention  at  Worces 
ter,  1848,  55,  56  ;  his  speech  at 
ratification  meeting  described  by 
W.  L.  Garrison,  57,  58  ;  prepares 
address  in  support  of  Palfrey's 
reelection,  58-61 ;  takes  an  ac 
tive  part  in  Free-Soil  campaign 
and  in  support  of  Palfrey,  62 
seqq.,  74-77  ;  speech  at  Concord, 
64,  65 ;  letter  of,  to  Palfrey,  on 
news  of  his  defeat,  65,  66  ;  pre 
pares  circular  letter  in  anticipa 
tion  of  new  election,  66-69; 
further  letters  of,  to  Palfrey,  on 
his  continued  ill  success,  69-72  ; 
opposes  coalition  of  Free-Soilers 
and  Democrats  in  1850,  98,  99 ; 
his  invincible  repugnance  to 
Democrats,  99,  256,  257,  267  ;  on 
Palfrey's  candidacy  for  governor, 
99,  100  ;  seeks  to  defeat  adoption 
by  the  people  of  new  Mass  Con 
stitution  drafted  by  the  Conven 


tion  of  1853,  101-104;  receives 
votes  for  nomination  for  governor 
at  first  Republican  State  conven 
tions  of  1854  and  1855,  106,  110  ; 
active  in  formation  of  Republi 
can  party,  109,  110;  nominated 
for  Attorney-General  of  Mass. 
(1855),  and  defeated,  110,  114; 
his  letter  accepting  the  nomina 
tion,  110-113  ;  appointed  by  Gov. 
Gardner  commissioner  under 
Personal  Liberty  law,  114;  his 
letter  to  the  Advertiser  thereon, 
114-116;  delegate  to  Pittsburg 
convention  (Feb.  1856),  and  on 
Resolutions  Committee  there, 

116  ;  delegate  to  Republican  Na 
tional    Convention    at   Philadel 
phia  (June,   1856),  and  on  Reso 
lutions     Committee    there,    116, 

117  ;  at  Faneuil  Hall  ratification 
meeting,  117  ;  active  in  campaign 
of  1856,  117;  delegate  to  State 
convention    of    1860,    126;     his 
opinion  of   Lincoln  and    Seward 
early  in  1861, 126,  127  ;  speech  at 
Concord,  Apr.  19,  1861, 128,  129  ; 
his  opinion  of    Pres.  Lincoln   in 
1864,  140,  141  ;  writes  Evarts  on 
his    appointment    as    Attorney- 
Gen,  by  Pres.  Johnson,  149,  150 ; 
his  views  of  Democratic  platform 
of  1864,152,   153;  suggested   as 
candidate  for  governor  of  Mass., 
159,   160;   appointed    Attorney- 
Gen,   of   U.   S.    by   Pres.   Grant 
(1869),  162 ;  story  of  the  appoint 
ment,  163-166 ;    how  it  was  af 
fected  by   Boutwell's  candidacy 
for  Secretary   of  the  Treasury, 
163  seqq.  ;  is   urged  to  decline, 
164,  165 ;  and  A.  T.  Stewart's  in- 
eligibility,  166  ;  letter  of,  to  G.  F. 
Hoar,  on  the  subject,  167  ;   pe 
cuniary  aspect  of  the  change  in 
his  position,  168  ;  his  first  inter 
view  with  Grant,  169;  public  ap 
proval  of  his  appointment,  169- 
171  ;  letters  to  and  from  Lowell 
on  the  subject,  171-174  ;  his  first 
cabinet  meeting,  175  ;  his  opinion 
of     Sumner's    attitude     on    the 
Tenure-of-Office  bill  and  the  Al 
abama  Claims,  177,  178 ;  supports 


INDEX 


347 


Secretary  Fish,  178  ;  opposes  rec 
ognition  of  belligerency  of  Cuban 
insurgents,  179,  180  ;  and  the  ap 
pointment  of  Federal  judges, 
180-182;  Secretary  Cox  quoted 
on  that  subject,  181,  182  ;  his  se 
lections  offend  senators  and  cause 
friction,  182  ;  his  plain  speaking 
and  sincerity  antipathetic  to  pol 
iticians,  182,  183;  his  attitude 
taken  as  an  affront  by  many  sen 
ators,  183  ;  his  reply  to  Senator 
Chandler's  resolution  calling  for 
report  on  certain  cases  causes  re 
newed  irritation,  183,  184;  at 
tempts  to  force  him  from  the 
cabinet,  184;  Grant's  attitude 
toward  him,  184 ;  is  offered  a  j 
seat  on  the  Supreme  Court,  18^ ;  j 
hesitates  concerning  acceptance,  j 
184-188;  letters  from  Judge 
Gray  and  C.  W.  Storey  thereon,  j 
186-188 ;  accepts  the  appoint 
ment,  188  ;  his  confirmation  op-  j 
g>sed,  188  seqq.  ;  letters  to  Mrs. 
.  thereon,  188,  189 ;  letters  from 
Henry  Wilson,  Secretary  Cox, 
Lowell,  and  C.  F.  Adams,  189- 
193  ;  letters  of,  to  G.  F.  Hoar,  195, 
19G  ;  his  sister  Elizabeth's  words 
of  confidence  and  encourage 
ment,  196 ;  his  nomination  finally 
rejected,  197  ;  "  a  man  who  had 
snubbed  seventy  senators,"  197 ; 
C.  F.  Adams  on  his  plain  speak 
ing,  197,  198 ;  charged  with 
"  packing "  Supreme  Court  by 
appointments  of  Strong  and 
Bradley,  to  obtain  reversal  of  de 
cision  on  Legal-Tender  Act,  199 ; 
refutation  of  the  charge,  199 
seqq.  ;  continues  in  office  of  At 
torney-Gen.,  202  seqq. ;  letters  to 
Lowell  and  Emerson,  203,  to  J. 
M.  Forbes,  204,  205,  and  to  Mrs. 
H.,  205 ;  his  position  in  the  cab 
inet  ill-assured,  206  ;  resigns  the 
office  (June,  1870),  207,  209, 210  ; 
the  story  of  the  resignation  told 
by  J.  D.  Cox,  largely  in  H.'s  own 
words,  207-211  ;  his  resignation 
requested  by  Grant,  without  giv 
ing  reasons,  208,  209 ;  his  inter 
view  with  Grant,  209-211 ;  leaves 


the  cabinet,  212;  his  farewell 
letter  to  the  President,  2 13  ;  hi§ 
magnanimity,  213,  214 ;  various 
incidents  of  his  attorney-general 
ship  described  in  letters  to  Mrs. 
H.  and  Lowell,  2 15-2 17;  opposes 
Butler's  nomination  for  governor 
of  Mass.,  228;  elected  to  43d 
Congress,  229  ;  on  the  election  of 
1872,  231,  232  ;  favors  resumption 
of  specie  payments,  232 ;  again 
opposes  Butler's  ambition,  235  ; 
in  Congress,  236  seqq, ;  opposes 
inflation  of  the  currency,  236, 
and  Sherman's  plan  for  resump 
tion,  236,  237;  letter  to  Forbes 
concerning  the  latter,  237;  op 
poses  "Force  Bill,"  238,  239; 
consents  to  be  candidate  for  U.  S. 
Senator,  241 ;  opposed  by  But 
ler  and  defeated  by  Dawes,  242 ; 
suggested  for  a  place  in  the  cab 
inet  in  1876,  250;  delegate  to 
Republican  National  Convention 
of  1876,  251 ;  opposed  to  Elaine's 
nomination,  but  not  for  personal 
reasons,  251,  252  ;  runs  independ 
ently  for  Congress  against  But 
ler  (1876)  and  is  defeated,  252- 
255 ;  anecdote  of  the  campaign, 
256 ;  his  antipathy  for  Democrats 
and  Independents,  256,  257  ;  on 
the  presidential  crisis  of  1876 
and  his  brother's  election  to  the 
Senate,  260,  261 ;  and  Butlerism 
in  Mass.,  261,  262  ;  on  President 
Hayes's  cabinet,  and  the  politi 
cal  outlook,  261  ;  declines  to 
serve  on  commission  to  visit  Lou 
isiana,  262,  263 ;  and  Elaine's  at 
tack  on  Mass.,  264 ;  writes  G.  F. 
Hoar  on  political  affairs  in 
Mass.,  264,  265 ;  supports  Elaine 
for  president  (1884),  267-269; 
once  a  bolter  himself,  267 ;  re 
iterates  his  opinion  of  Democrats, 
267  ;  his  reason  for  adhering  to 
Republican  nominees,  as  reported 
by  Sherman  Hoar,  268;  his 
opinion  of  "  Mugwumps,"  as  re 
ported  by  G.  F.  Hoar,  268, 
269;  on  J.  M.  Forbes  and  his 
"  Mugwumpery,"  290,  292,  294; 
and  his  son  Sherman's  election 


348 


INDEX 


to  Congress  as  a  Democrat,  290, 

291,  293,  294;  his  continued  alle 
giance  to  the  Republican  party, 
292, 294 ;  letter  to  Forbes  thereon, 

292,  293,  and  on  the  desertion  of 
the  party  by  young  men,  294. 

Letters  to  J.  A.  Andrew,  133, 
Sidney  Bartlett,  307,  James  G. 
Blaine,  267,  Boston  Advertiser, 
114-116,  R.  H.  Dana,  169,  178, 
241,  242,  Ralph  Waldo  Emerson, 
203, 239,  William  M.  Evarts,  117, 
126,  136,  138,  141-144,  149,  231, 
235,  242,  279,  280,  Mrs.  Edith 
Forbes,  325,  John  M.  Forbes, 
130-132,  140,  177,  204,  217,  237, 
292,  294,  322,  323,  324,  Ulysses 
S.  Grant,  213,  232,  Mrs.  Caroline 
Brooks  Hoar,  73-78,  93-98,  105, 
145-148,  176,  185,  188,  205,  215, 
306,  George  F.  Hoar,  136,  167, 
195,  214,  233,  234,  250,  251,  257, 
260,  261,  293,  James  Russell 
Lowell,  150,  151,  152,  153,  154, 
155,  156,  158,  159,  160,  202,  203, 
216,  221,  244,  Charles  W.  Pal- 
fray,  330,  John  G.  Palfrey,  48-50, 
61,  65,  69,  70,  71,  99,  101-103, 
Le  Baron  Russell,  285,  Wil 
liam  G.  Russell,  281,  Charles 
Sumner,  180,  James  B.  Thayer, 
289,  Charles  R.  Train,  63,  Lois 
Wade,  29 ;  from  C.  F.  Adams,  194, 
Jacob  D.  Cox,  190-193,  Ralph 
Waldo  Emerson,  286,  William 
M.  Evarts,  262,  293,  Horace 
Gray,  186,  J.  R.  Lowell,  172- 
174,  193,  319,  Charles  W.  Storey, 
187,  Lois  Wade,  27,  Henry  Wil 
son,  189. 

Hoar,  Edward  Sherman,  H.'s 
brother,  his  birth  and  marriage, 
7 ;  anecdote  of,  9  ;  158,  316,  317, 
326. 

Hoar,  Elizabeth,  H.'s  sister,  her 
"  History  "  of  H.,  11,  12  ;  on  H.'s 
character,  196  ;  6,  7,  15,  303, 316, 
317,  333. 

Hoar,  Elizabeth,  H.'s  daughter,  32. 
And  see  Bowles,  Elizabeth. 

Hoar,  Elizabeth  Prichard,  wife  of 
Edward  S.  Hoar,  7,  317. 

Hoar,  George  Frisbie,  H.'s  brother, 
his  birth  and  marriages,  7 ;  letter 


of  H.  to,  on  Sam's  war  experi 
ence  ,  136 ;  on  H.'s  appointment 
as  Attorney-Gen.,  163,  164,  165, 
166,  170;  letter  of,  to  P.  W. 
Chandler,  on  proposed  gift  of 
house  to  H.,  168;  on  appoint 
ments  to  cabinet  from  Mass., 
171 ;  on  H.'s  first  cabinet  meet 
ing,  175  ;  letters  of  H.  to,  on  the 
contest  over  nomination  to  Su 
preme  Court,  195, 196 ;  on  respon 
sibility  for  rejection  of  the  nomi 
nation,  197 ;  his  refutation  of  the 
charge  that  H.  packed  the  Su 
preme  Court,  199  and  n. ;  on  re 
lations  of  Grant  and  H.,  246 ;  on 
Butler  and  H.,  253, 254, 256, 257  ; 
letter  of  H.  to,  on  his  election  as 
Senator,  260  ;  replies  to  Elaine's 
attack  on  Mass.,  264 ;  reports  H.'s 
opinion  of  "  Mugwumps,"  and  in 
cidentally  delivers  his  own  severe 
judgment  of  them,  268,  269 ;  H.'s 
jest  concerning  his  "little  bro 
ther,  "283,  284;  affectionate  re 
lations  between  H.  and,  284; 
letter  of  H.  to,  on  Sherman 
Hoar's  election  to  Congress,  293  ; 
quoted,  8,  9,  12,  35,  36,  51 ;  103, 
214,  233,  236,  251,  252,  302,  305, 
315,  321. 

Hoar,  Joanna,  American  ancestress 
of  the  family,  her  burial-place, 
1;  supposititious  letter  of,  1,  2; 
ancestress  of  Adams  and  Quincy 
families,  2  ;  7. 

Hoar,  John,  I,  son  of  Joanna,  set 
tles  in  Concord,  2 ;  his  character 
and  career,  2,  3 ;  and  Rev.  Ed 
ward  Bulkeley's  preaching,  3. 

Hoar,  John,  II,  son  of  Daniel,  3. 

Hoar,  Leonard,  son  of  Joanna, 
President  of  Harvard  College,  2. 

Hoar,  Mrs.  Louisa  (Spurr),  first 
wife  of  G.  F.  Hoar,  7. 

Hoar,  Mary,  H.'s  niece,  306. 

Hoar,  Mrs.  Ruth  (Miller),  second 
wife  of  G.  F.  Hoar,  7. 

Hoar,  Samuel,  I,  son  of  John,  II,  at 
Concord  Bridge,  3 ;  6,  249. 

Hoar,  Samuel,  II,  H.'s  father,  4 ; 
his  character,  and  his  career  as 
lawver  and  statesman,  4,  5  ;  his 
mission  to  South  Carolina  and  ex- 


INDEX 


349 


pulsion  from  the  state,  4,  5,  39 ; 
Starr  King,  Alcott,  and  Seth 
Ames  on,  5  ;  H.'s  eulogy  of,  5 ; 
R.  W.  Emerson  on,  6,  9,  10 ;  his 
children,  7 ;  in  his  home,  8  seqq. ; 
and  Sunday  observance,  8; 
"  Cato,"  9 ;  G.  F.  Hoar  on,  9 ; 
morning  prayers,  10 ;  Rev.  B. 
Frost  on,  10,  11 ;  his  reputation 
as  a  lawyer,  34 ;  presides  at  Free- 
Soil  convention,  55;  28,  57,  65, 
75,  77,  78,  104,  109,  269,  293, 
300. 

Hoar,  Samuel,  III,  H.'s  oldest  son, 
and  the  "  war  fever,"  133  ;  char 
acter  of,  134,  135 ;  enlists  in  Con 
cord  "home  guard,"  135;  runs 
away  and  enlists  in  Maine  regi 
ment,  135 ;  transferred  to  48th 
Mass.,  135 ;  his  service  in  the 
field,  135  ;  invalided  home,  135  ; 
H.  on  his  war  experience,  136  ; 
after  the  war,  136  ;  pardon  clerk 
under  Evarts  and  H.,  176 ;  rela 
tions  of,  with  H.,  176;  supports 
Cleveland  against  Elaine,  267; 
22,  32,  47,  74,  77,  78,  186,  243, 
250,  281. 

Hoar,  Samuel  Johnson,  H.'s  bro 
ther,  7. 

Hoar,  Mrs.  Sarah  Sherman,  H.'s 
mother,  6,  7,  8,  10. 

Hoar,  Sarah  Sherman,  H.'s  Bister, 
married  R.  B.  Storer,  7. 

Hoar,  Sarah  Sherman,  H.'s  daugh 
ter,  32. 

Hoar,  Sherman,  H.'s  son,  anecdote 
of,  160,  161 ;  supports  Cleveland 
against  Blaine,  267  ;  reports  H.'s 
opinion  of  Blaine,  268 ;  nomi 
nated  and  elected  to  Congress  as 
a  Democrat,  290  ;  Col.  H.  Lee  on 
his  election,  291 ;  letters  of  H.  on 
same  subject,  293,  294,  and  of 
W.  M.  Evarts,  293 ;  32,  281. 

Hoar,  Mrs.  Susannah  (Pierce),  4. 

Hoar  family,  G.  F.  Hoar  on,  8.  . 

Hoare,  Charles,  father  of  Charles 
Hoar,  2  n. 

Holmes,  John,  character  of,  317, 
318 ;  H.'s  poem  to,  318,  319 ;  18, 
145,  146,  216,  221. 

Holmes,  Oliver  Wendell,  314,  315, 
316,  317,  318,  320. 


Hooper,  Samuel,  131,  171,  239. 

Hopkiuson,  Judge  Thomas,  35. 

Horatius  Codes,  his  feat  emulated 
by  H.,  46,  47. 

Horses,  epidemic  among,  in  1872, 
230. 

House  of  Representatives  senda 
committee  to  investigate  condi 
tions  in  Louisiana,  238. 

Howard,  Benjamin  C.,  reporter  of 
decisions,  139. 

Howe,  Estes,  61,  67,  145,  146. 

Howe,  Samuel  G.,  130,  314. 

Howells,  William  D.,  315. 

Kurd,  Dr.,  298. 

"Inflation  bill,"  passed  by  Repub 
lican  Congress  and  vetoed  by 
Grant,  235. 

Jay,  John,  227. 

Johnson,  Andrew,  Pres.  of  U.  S., 
impeachment  of,  149,  165,  176, 
180. 

Johnson,  Reverdy,  minister  to  Eng 
land,  negotiates  treaty  with  Lord 
Clarendon  concerning  Alabama 
Claims,  176. 

Johnson-Clarendon  Treaty,  opposed 
by  Sumner  and  rejected  by  Sen 
ate,  176,  177,  178;  222,  224,  225. 

Joint  High  Commission.  See  Ala 
bama  Claims. 

Judiciary,  Federal,  H.'s  difficulties 
concerning  appointments  to,  180- 
182 

Judiciary  of  Mass.,  change  in  tenure 
of,  provided  in  proposed  new  con 
stitution  (1853),  102. 

Julius  II  (dellaRovere),Pope,  H.'a 
resemblance  to,  297. 

Jumel  Case,  the,  233,  234. 

Jurors,  duties  of,  in  case  of  inability 
to  agree,  H.'s  charge  to  jury  in 
Commonwealth  vs.  Tuey  concern 
ing,  89-91. 

Kansas,  attempt  to  establish  slavery 

in,  109,  111. 

Kellogg,  William  Pitt,  238. 
Kent,  William,  his  Commentaries, 

30. 
Keyes,  Mrs.  Joseph.    See  Maynard, 

Helen. 


350 


INDEX 


Keyes,  Judge  John  S.,  37,  246, 247, 

285. 
King,   Thomas    Starr,   on  Samuel 

Hoar,  5. 

King  Philip's  War,  3. 
Know-Nothing  party,  109. 

Lairds,  huilders  of  the  Alexandra, 
139. 

Lamb,  Charles,  John  Holmes 
likened  to,  318. 

Lander,  Edward,  H.  C.  1835,  18. 

Latham  vs.  U.  S.,  202. 

Lawrence,  Amos  A.,  H.  C.  1835,  18. 

Lawrence,  Charles  B.,  262. 

Lawrence,  Bishop  William,  333. 

Lee,  Col.  Henry,  tributes  of,  to  H., 
291,  295,  296;  his  reply  to  Mr. 
Shortle  of  Provincetown,  313, 314. 

Legal-Tender  Act,  held  unconstitu 
tional  by  Supreme  Court  in  Hep 
burn  vs.  Griswold,  198;  reversal 
of  decision  on,  after  appointment 
of  Bradley  and  Strong,  199; 
Chief  Justice  Chase's  relation  to, 
200. 

Leighton,  Hannah,  249. 

Lexington,  Mass.,  248,  249. 

Liberal  Republican  movement  of 
1872,  229. 

Liberator,  The,  on  H.'s  speech  at 
Free-Soil  ratification  meeting,  57, 
58. 

Lincoln,  Abraham,  Pres.  of  U.  S., 
result  of  his  election,  126 ;  pros 
pects  of  renomination  of,  139; 
H.'s  opinion  of,  in  1864, 140, 141 ; 
and  the  Chief  Justiceship,  142, 
143;  127,130. 

Longfellow,  Henry  W-,  154,  314. 

Loring,  George  B.,  31. 

Louisiana,  political  confusion  in, 
237,  238 ;  committee  of  investi 
gation  appointed  by  House  of 
Representatives,  238 ;  H.  declines 
to  serve  on  commission  to  inves 
tigate  political  condition  in,  262, 
263. 

Levering,  Joseph,  154. 

Lowell,  Charles  Russell,  on  H.'s 
service  as  agent  of  Mass,  in  Wash 
ington,  130 ;  H.'s  praise  of,  132. 

Lowell,  Mrs.  Frances  (wife  of 
J.R.L.),  174,203. 


Lowell,  Judge  Francis  C.,  quoted, 
302. 

Lowell,  James  Russell,  rusticated 
to  Concord,  30,  31 ;  his  poem  on 
Miss  Brooks,  3 ;  his  Biglow  Pa 
pers,  47,  152,  155,  156,  157,  203 ; 
H.'s  friendship  with,  as  revealed 
by  his  letters,  150-161 ;  his  gout, 
153;  his  Commemoration  Ode,  155; 
dedicated  2d  series  of  Biglow 
Papers  to  H.,  156,  157 ;  his  50th 
birthday,  160;  writes  H.  on  his 
appointment  as  Attorney -Gen., 
172-174,  and  on  the  contest  over 
his  nomination  to  the  Supreme 
Court,  193, 194 ;  his  Two  Gunners, 
283;  writes  H.  on  his  golden 
wedding,  319;  H.  compared  to 
L.'s  ideal  "stalwart  man,"  334; 
quoted,  245, 247, 248 ;  18, 145, 146, 
154,  202,  203,  216,  314,  315,  318. 
Lyceum,  the,  in  Concord,  300. 

McCrary,  George  W.,  261. 

Macdonald,  Sir  John  A.,  224. 

MacVeagh,  Wayne,  on  Butler,  201, 
202. 

Martin,  Luther,  107. 

Mason,  Charles,  61. 

Massachusetts,  sends  Samuel  Hoar 
to  South  Carolina,  4,  5 ;  attitude 
of  Whigs  in,  in  1845,  39;  anti- 
annexation  meetings  in,  40  seqq. ; 
attitude  of,  toward  Mexican  War, 
44;  division  of  Whigs  in,  44; 
Constitutional  convention  of  1853 
in,  adopts  new  constitution  by 
combination  of  Free-Soilers  and 
Democrats,  101 ;  discussion  as  to 
appointment  of  two  members  of 
cabinet  from,  164, 165,  171 ;  "  too 
much,  in  the  cabinet,"  184. 

Massachusetts  Reformatory  at  Con 
cord,  313. 

Maynard,  Helen  (Mrs.  Joseph 
Keyes),  300. 

"  Med.  Fac.,  the,"  22,  23. 

Merrick,  Pliny,  Justice  of  Mass.  Su 
preme  Court,  126. 

Metcalf,  Theron,  Justice  of  Mass. 
Supreme  Court,  126. 

Mexican  War,  44  seqq. 

Middlesex  County  bar,  the  palmy 
days  of,  108.  ' 


INDEX 


351 


Miller,  Ruth.  See  Hoar,  Mrs.  Ruth 

Miller. 
Miller,   Samuel,   Justice   of  U.  S. 

Supreme  Court,  235. 
Milton,   John,  his   Paradise    Lost, 

306,  326. 
Missouri    Compromise,    repeal    of, 

united  the  free  states,  109 ;  H.'s 

views  concerning,  111. 
Morris,  Gouverneur,  151. 
Motley,  J.  Lothrop,  131,  151,  171, 

173,  178,  179,  314. 
"Mugwumps,"  H.'s  opinion  of,  as 

reported  by  G.  F.  Hoar,  268,  269. 
Munroe,  Alfred,  301,  327. 

Naushon,  island  of,  292,  323. 

Nebraska,  attempt  to  establish 
slavery  in,  109. 

Nelson,  Albert  H.,  Chief  Justice  of 
Superior  Court  of  Suffolk,  35. 

Nelson,  Samuel,  Justice  of  U.  S. 
Supreme  Court,  224. 

Nelson,  Thomas  L.,  Justice  of  U.  S. 
District  Court,  233. 

New  York  Evening  Pott,  279  and  n. 

New  York  Times,  208,  212. 

North,  the,  reluctant  to  admit  ne 
cessity  of  war,  126. 

Northcote,  Sir  Stafford,  letter  of,  to 
Sumner,  225 ;  224. 

Norton,  Charles  Eliot,  280,  314. 

Noyes,  Curtis,  143. 

Palfray,  Charles  W.,  H.  C.  1835, 18, 
26,  330. 

Palfrey,  John  G.,  elected  to  Con 
gress  (1846),  45;  votes  against 
R.  C.  Winthrop  for  Speaker,  47  ; 
his  course  approved  by  H.,  48- 
50 ;  letter  of  Sumner  to,  51 ; 
his  reelection  advocated  in  ad 
dress  drawn  by  H.,  58-61 ;  letter 
of  H.  to,  on  Free-Soil  movement, 
61 ;  H.  active  in  his  support,  63 
seqq. ;  fails  to  obtain  reelection, 
65 ;  letters  of  H.  to,  65, 66,  69, 
70 ;  circular  letter  in  support  of, 
66-69;  has  no  better  success  in 
successive  new  elections,  70  seqq. , 
letters  of  H.  to,  70-72 ;  finally 
defeated,  70 ;  letters  of  H.  to,  on 
his  candidacy  for  governor  of 
Mass.,  99,  100,  and  in  opposition 


to  the  new  constitution,  101-103 ; 
42,  52,  74,  76,  77,  104,  330. 

Panic  of  1873,  236. 

Park,  John  C.,  61. 

Parker,  Charles  H.,  H.  C.  1835,  18, 
304. 

Parker,  Francis  E.,  258. 

Parker  House,  meeting-place  of  the 
Saturday  Club,  314,  315,  316. 

Parkman,  Francis,  315. 

Peabody,  Dr.  Andrew  P.,  18. 

Peirce,  Benjamin,  154,  314. 

Personal  Liberty  law  of  Mass.,  H. 
appointed  a  commissioner  under, 
114  seqq. 

Peters,  Richard,  Jr.,  reporter  of  de 
cisions,  139. 

Phi  Beta  Kappa,  E.  R.  H.  at  annual 
dinner  of,  153,  154 ;  289. 

Phillips,  Stephen  C.,  52,  104. 

Phillips,  Wendell,  42. 

Pierce,  Col.  Abijah,  4. 

Pierce,  Edward  L.,  his  Life  of  Sum 
ner  quoted,  41,  51 ;  253. 

Pierce,  Franklin,  Pres.  of  U.  S., 
105. 

Pierce,  Susannah.  See  Hoar,  Mrs. 
Susannah  Pierce,  4. 

Pillsbury,  Albert  E.,  quoted,  on 
H.'s  connection  with  case  of  An 
thony  Burns,  80,  81. 

Pittsburg,  Pa.,  H.  teaches  in  girls' 
school  at,  26,  27. 

Platt,  Thomas  C.,  266. 

Poland,  Luke  P.,  192. 

Police  Courts  in  Mass.,  tenure  of 
judges  of,  102. 

Polk,  James  K.,  Pres.  of  U.  S., 
elected  on  annexation  platform, 
38,  39. 

Pollock,  Sir  Frederick,  Chief  Baron, 
and  the  Alexandra  case,  139. 

Port  Hudson  campaign,  the,  135, 
136. 

"  Praying  Indians,"  the,  and  John 
Hoar,  3. 

Prescott,  Lieut.  George  L.,  128  and  n. 

Prescott,  William  H,  314. 

Presidential  campaign  of  1876,  re 
sult  of,  260  seqq. 

Prichard,  Amelia  M.,  186. 

Prichard,  Elizabeth.  See  Hoar,  Mrs. 
Elizabeth  Prichard. 

"  Prichardesses,  the,"  327. 


352 


INDEX 


Prize  Cases,  the,  Evarts's  argument 

in,  138. 
Putnam,  William  L.,  Justice  of  U.  S. 

Circuit  Court,  letter  of,  to  G.  F. 

Hoar,  321. 

Quincy,  Edmund,  2. 
Quincy,  Mrs.  Edmund,  2. 
Quincy,  Josiah,  President  of  Har 
vard  College,  17,  18,  19,  104. 

Radcliffe,  Anne,  Lady  Mowlson,  1, 
2. 

Radcliffe  College,  1. 

Randolph,  John,  of  Roanoke,  on 
Roger  Sherman,  6,  7. 

Rawlins,  John  A.,  Secretary  of  War, 
162 ;  favors  recognition  of  bellig 
erency  of  Cuban  insurgents,  179 ; 
death  of,  184. 

"  Rebellion  "  in  the  Class  of  1835 
(1831),  19,  20. 

Republican  party,  State  convention 
of,  in  Mass.,  in  1854,  106;  or 
ganization  of,  in  Mass.,  109 ;  State 
convention  of  1855,  110;  H.  on 
its  purpose  and  principles,  110- 
113;  informal  convention  of,  at 
Pittsburg  (Feb.  1856),  116;  first 
national  convention  of,  at  Phila., 
June,  1856, 116 ;  H.'s  glorification 
of,  and  allegiance  to,  268. 

Reynolds,  Rev.  Grindall,  129,  298, 
299,  326. 

Rhodes,  James  Ford,  245,  255. 

Rice,  Reuben,  3 11,  326. 

R[ichardson],  William  A.,  243. 

Ricketts,  Mrs.,  242. 

Ripley,  Dr.  Ezra,  298. 

Robeson,  George  M.,  Secretary  of 
the  Navy,  190,  192, 216. 

Robinson,  William  S.  ("Warring- 
ton"),  on  H.'s  speech  at  Free- 
Soil  convention,  56. 

Rockwell,  Julius,  first  Republican 
nominee  for  governor  of  Mass. 
(1855),  110. 

Rockwood,  Ebenezer,  H.  named  for, 
8. 

Rogers,  William  B.,  315. 

Rome,  H.  at,  46,  47. 

Rotch,  William,  anecdote  of,  257. 

Rowlandson,  Mrs.,  3. 

Rowge,  Samuel  W.,  315. 


Russell,  Le  Baron,  letter  of  H.  to, 
concerning  gift  to  Emerson,  286. 

Russell,  William  G.,  quoted  con 
cerning  H.,  276,  277 ;  letter  of 
H.  to,  281. 

Samana  Bay,  206. 

San  Domingo,  Pres.  Grant's  plan 
for  annexation  of,  opposed  and 
defeated  by  Sumner,  206,  207. 

Sanborn,  Franklin  B.,  arrested  for 
complicity  in  John  Brown's  raid, 
125 ;  discharged  on  habeas  corpus 
issued  by  H.,  125,  126. 

Sargent,  Mr.,  Postmaster  of  Haver- 
hill,  265. 

Saturday  Club,  and  H.'s  appoint 
ment  as  Attorney-Gen.,  172,  173, 
174 ;  origin  and  growth  of ,  314- 
316 ;  members  of,  314,  315  ;  din 
ners  of,  315,  316;  133,  197,  269, 
294,  317,  320,  325. 

Schenck,  Robert  C.,  224. 

Schurz,  Carl,  on  Sumner  and  the 
Alabama  Claims,  222 ;  261,  267. 

Scott,  Sir  Walter,  his  Fortunes  of 
Nigel,  274,  Legend  of  Montrose, 
325,  Rob  Roy,  295  and  n.,  Waver- 
ley,  326  n. 

Sedgwick,  Catherine,  98. 

Sedgwick,  Charles,  97,  98. 

Senate  of  U.  S.,  members  of,  irri 
tated  by  H.'s  attitude  toward  ju 
dicial  appointments,  181-183,  and 
by  his  denial  of  accountability  to 
the  Senate,  183 ;  opposes  and 
finally  rejects  his  nomination  to 
the  Supreme  Court,  188  seqq., 
197. 

Seward,  William  H.,  105,  126,  127. 

Shackford,  Charles  C.,  H.  C.  1835, 
18,  26. 

Shaw,  John  H.,  61,  65. 

Shaw,  Lemuel,  Chief  Justice  of  Su 
preme  Court  of  Mass.,  126. 

Sheridan,  Gen.  P.  H.,  294. 

Sherman,  Sarah,  married  Samuel 
Hoar,  II.  See  Hoar,  Mrs.  Sarah 
Sherman. 

Sherman,  John,  U.  S.  Senator,  163, 
164,  236,  237. 

Sherman,  Roger,  H.'s  maternal 
grandfather,  6 ;  John  Randolph 
on,  7 ;  293,  310. 


INDEX 


353 


Sherman,  Gen.  William  T.,  168,  294. 

Shortle,  Mr.,  of  Provincetown,  and 
Col.  Henry  Lee,  313,  314. 

Simmons,  William  A.,  appointed 
collector  of  port  of  Boston  by 
Butler's  influence,  254,  255 ;  260, 
261,262,  264,265. 

Slavery,  steady  growth  of  sectional 
antagonism  concerning1,  38,  39 ; 
question  of,  involved  in  struggle 
over  annexation  of  Texas,  39 
seqq. ;  and  the  Mexican  War,  44  ; 
Webster's  speech  on,  in  1848,  50, 
51  ;  opposition  to,  the  basis  of  ad 
dress  of  Mass.  Whigs  against 
Taylor,  53-55  ;  result  of  attempts 
to  establish  in  Kansas  and  Ne 
braska,  109 ;  H.  on  opposition  to 
extension  of,  113. 

Sleepy  Hollow,  38. 

Smith,  Gerrit,  106. 

Smith,  Sydney,  227. 

Smithsonian  Institution,  242. 

Smyth,  Egbert  C.,  his  suit  against 
the  Andover  Theological  Semi 
nary,  270-273. 

Social  Circle,  at  Concord,  311,  312, 
325. 

South  Carolina,  Samuel  Hoar's  mis 
sion  to,  and  expulsion  from,  4,  5, 
39. 

Specie  payments,  resumption  of, 
232;  Sen.  Sherman's  bill  passed 
by  Congress,  236  ;  H.'s  reason  for 
opposing  that  bill,  237- 

Spiritualism,  H.'s  attitude  to,  309. 

Springfield  Republican,  56. 

Spurr,  Louisa.  See  Hoar,  Mrs.  Lou 
isa  Spurr. 

Stanton,  Edwin  M.,  nominated  for 
justice  of  Supreme  Court,  198 ; 
dies  before  taking  hia  seat,  198  ; 
144,  191. 

Staples,  Samuel,  276. 

State  Highway  Commission,  and 
Main  St.,  Concord,  327. 

Stewart,  Alexander  T.,  appointed 
Secretary  of  the  Treasury  by 
Grant,  162;  his  ineligibility,  163, 
164 ;  his  name  withdrawn,  166. 

Stillman,  William  J.,  145,  146. 

Storer,  Eliz.  H.,  H.'s  niece,  302. 

Storer,  Robert  B.,  marries  Sarah  S. 
Hoar,  T 


Storer,  Mrs.  Sarah  S.  (Hoar),  H.'s 
sister,  7,  13,  23. 

Storey,  Charles  W.,  H.  C.  1835,  18 ; 
letter  of,  to  H.,  on  his  appoint 
ment  to  Supreme  Court  of  U.  S., 
187 ;  318. 

Story,  Joseph,  Justice  of  Supreme 
Court  of  U.  S.,  104. 

Story,  William  W.,  104. 

Story  Association,  104. 

Strong,  William,  appointed  justice 
of  Supreme  Court  of  U.  S.,  198  ; 
his  appointment  alleged  to  be 
part  of  a  scheme  to  obtain  a  re 
versal  of  the  Legal-Tender  de 
cision,  199  seqq. 

Sullivan,  Judge  William,  quoted 
concerning  H.,  274,  308. 

Sumner,  Charles,  letter  of,  to  Dr. 
Palfrey,  on  Webster's  candidacy 
for  president,  51 ;  elected  U.  S. 
Senator  by  Coalition  of  1850,  99  ; 
opposes  and  defeats  Johnson- 
Clarendon  Treaty,  177;  his  atti 
tude  on  the  Alabama  Claims,  177, 
178,  222  seqq. ;  opposes  recogni 
tion  of  belligerency  of  Cuban  in 
surgents,  179,  180 ;  his  ambition  to 
be  "  president,  secretary  of  state, 
Congress,  and  public  instructor 
and  guide,  all  rolled  into  one," 
204,  205 ;  opposes  treaty  for  an 
nexation  of  San  Domingo,  206, 
207  ;  arouses  Grant's  anger,  206  ; 
C.  Schurz  on,  222  ;  his  speech  on 
the  Johnson-Clarendon  Treaty, 
224;  letter  of  Sir  S.  Northcote 
thereon,  225  ;  his  death,  239, 240 ; 
and  the  Civil  Rights  bill,  240; 
his  last  speech  in  the  Senate,  240 ; 
character,  240  ;  H.'s  eulogy,  240 ; 
42,  44,  50,  52,  53,  55,  105,  142, 
164,  171,  211,234,  260,  314,  334. 

Sumter,  Fort,  fall  of,  127. 

Supreme  Court  of  the  U.  S.,  num 
ber  of  members  of,  reduced,  then 
increased,  180,  181 ;  charge  of 
"packing,"  199  seqq. 

Supreme  Judicial  Court  of  Mass., 
H.'s  ten  years'  service  on,  119 
seqq. ;  a  hard-working  court,  124. 

Taney,  Roger  B.,  Chief  Justice  of 
the  U.  S.,  138. 


354 


INDEX 


Taylor,  Zachary,  Pres.  of  U.  S.,and 
the  Whig  nomination  in  1848,  51 
seqq. ;  Webster's  attitude  toward, 
51,  52 ;  address  of  Mass.  Anti- 
Slavery  Whigs  in  opposition  to, 
53-55 ;  77. 

Teuterden,  Charles  S.  A.  Abbott, 
Lord,  227. 

Tenure-of-Office  bill,  177. 

Texas,  annexation  of,  38 ;  struggle 
over  admission  of,  to  the  Union, 
39  seqq. ;  attitude  of  Mass. Whigs, 
39,  41  ;  meetings  in  Boston  and 
Concord  in  opposition,  40-42  ;  ad 
mission  of,  42 ;  H.  advocates  anti- 
Texas  resolutions  in  Mass.  Sen 
ate,  43.  And  see  Anti-Texas 
Committee. 

Thayer,  James  B.,  letter  of  H.  to, 
on  Phi  Beta  Kappa  and  J.  M. 
Forbes,  289. 

Thomas,  Benjamin  F.,  Justice  of 
Mass.  Supreme  Court,  148,  159, 
189. 

Thompson,  Benjamin,  Palfrey's  op 
ponent  for  reelection  to  Congress, 
66,  67,  71,  74. 

Thompson,  Sir  Henry,  322. 

Thoreau,  Henry  D.,  25,  309,  317. 

Thornton,  Sir  Edward,  224. 

Thurston,  Rev.  James,  301. 

Tiber,  the,  H.  swims  across,  46, 47. 

Tobacco,  H.'s  addiction  to  use  of, 
308. 

Town  meetings  in  Concord,  H.'s 
paramount  influence  in,  310,  311. 

Tracy,  Albert  H.,  7. 

Train,  Charles  R.,  35,  51,  61,  63. 

Treaty  of  Washington,  225,  226, 
227,  250,  251. 

Trial  justices  in  Mass.,  proposed 
changes  in  tenure  of,  102. 

Trobriand,  Gen.  Philippe  R.  de, 
238. 

Tyler,  John,  Pres.  of  TJ.  S.,  and  the 
annexation  of  Texas,  38,  39. 

Unitarian  Association,  the,  303, 
304. 

Van  Buren,  Martin,  Pres.  of  U.  S., 
Free-Soil  candidate  against  Tay 
lor,  66,  74. 

Visitors  of    Andover    Theological 


Seminary,  suit  of  Prof.   Smyth 
against,  270-273. 
Vose,  Henry,  13,  14. 

Wade,  Lois  (Mrs.  Campbell),  pupil 
of  H.  at  Pittsburg,  27 ;  letter  of 
H.  to,  27. 

Waite,  Morrison  R.,  appointed  Chief 
Justice  of  U.  S.,  234. 

Walker,  James,  President  of  Har 
vard  College,  230. 

Walker,  Joseph  H.,  284. 

Walley,  Mr.,  35. 

Waltham  Watch  Co.,  303. 

War  of  1812,  attitude  of  Mass,  in, 
criticized  by  J.  G.  Blaine,  263, 264. 

Ward,  Samuel  G.,  314. 

Warren,  Judge,  257. 

"  Warrington."  See  Robinson,  Wil 
liam  S. 

Washburn,  Emory,  H.  studies  law 
in  office  of,  30. 

Washburn,  William  B.,  164,  165, 
171. 

Washburne,  Elihu  B.,  Secretary  of 
State,  162,  164,  178. 

Washington,  D.  C.,  fascination  of, 
220. 

Washington,  Treaty  of.  See  Treaty 
of  Washington. 

Waverley  Novels,  H.'s  familiarity 
with,  274.  And  see  Scott,  Sir 
Walter. 

Webster,  Daniel,  candidate  for 
president,  50,  51 ;  speech  of,  in 
U.  S.  Senate,  quoted,  50,  51 ;  hia 
attitude  toward  Taylor's  nomina 
tion,  51  seqq. ;  and  the  Free-Soil 
convention  of  1848,  57 ;  35,  36, 
39,  269. 

Wentworth,  Tappan,  35. 

Wheaton,  Henry,  reporter  of  deci 
sions,  139. 

Wheildon,  William  W.,  326. 

Whig  party,  H.  active  in,  37 ;  atti 
tude  of,  toward  admission  of 
Texas,  39, 41 ;  division  of,  on  that 
question,  43,  44,  and  on  the  ques 
tion  of  war  with  Mexico,  44  seqq. ; 
national  convention  of,  in  1848, 
nominates  Z.  Taylor,  52 ;  anti- 
slavery  branch  of,  in  Mass.,  is 
sues  address  in  opposition  to  Tay 
lor,  53-55. 


INDEX 


355 


Whipple,  Edwin  P.,  314. 

"  Whiskey  Ring,  the,"  245. 

Whist,  H.'s  devotion  to,  326,  327. 

Whiting,  John,  30. 

Whiting,  Miss,  29,  30. 

Whitings,  the,  15. 

Whittier,  John  G.,  42,  294. 

Willard,  Mr.,  one  of  the  early  set 
tlers  in  Concord,  300. 

Willes,  Justice  Sir  James  S.,  280. 

Williams,  George  H.,  Attorney- 
Gen,  of  U.  S.,  224,  234. 

Williams  College  confers  honorary 
LL.  D.  on  H.,  160. 

Wilmot  Proviso,  5. 

Wilson,  Henry,  U.  S.  Senator,  let 
ter  of,  to  H.,  on  contest  over  his 
nomination  to  Supreme  Court, 
189  ;  41,  43,  52,  55,  171. 


Winslow,  Benjamin  D.,  H.  C.  1835, 
26. 

Winthrop,  Robert  C.,  and  the  Mexi 
can  War,  44;  candidate  for 
Speaker  of  U.  S.  House  of  Rep 
resentatives,  47,  49,  50;  39,  41, 
70. 

Woman  suffrage,  H.'s  attitude  to, 
309. 

Woodman,  Horatio,  145,  146,  314. 

Woolsey,  Theodore  D.,  202. 

Worcester  Palladium,  on  H.'s 
speech  at  Free-Soil  convention, 

Worcester  Whig,  on  H.'s  speech  at 
Free-Soil  convention,  56. 

Wyman,  Jeffries,  145,  146,  148. 

Wyman,  William,  trial  of,  for  em 
bezzlement,  35,  36. 


CAMBRIDGE  .  MASSACHUSETTS 
U   .   S    .   A 


OF  CALIFORNIA 


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